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Performing Masculinity: the Star Persona of Tom Cruise Ruth O Performing Masculinity: the Star Persona of Tom Cruise Ruth O’Donnell A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Royal Holloway, University of London Department of Media Arts March 2012 1 Contents Acknowledgements p.6 Declaration p.7 Abstract p.8 Introduction: Masculinity and Performance in the Screen Persona of Tom Cruise p.9 Why a Study of Tom Cruise? p.9 Cruise‘s Star Persona p.10 Cruise and 1980s America p.11 A Psychodynamic Approach to Cruise p.17 Cruise Within Stardom p.19 Cruise Within Modern Hollywood p.26 Structure of the Thesis p.29 Section One: The Star Persona p.29 Section Two: Cruise‘s Performances of Masculinity p.31 Section Three: A Psychodynamic Reading of the Persona p.34 Conclusion p.38 Notes p.39 Chapter One: The Tom Cruise Persona p.40 Meanings of Persona p.40 Cruise‘s Persona p.44 The Early Persona of Tom Cruise p.46 Top Gun and Stardom p.52 Tom Cruise as Actor p.55 2 Extensions of the Persona p.58 Transgressing the Persona p.61 Eyes Wide Shut – a Shift in Persona p.65 Cruise, Oprah and Scientology p.71 Conclusion p.77 Notes p.78 Chapter Two: Male Bonding - Gender, Homoeroticism and the Performing Tom Cruise p.80 Bonds Between Men p.80 Performing Masculinity p.83 Figuring the Soldier p.85 The Other‘s Martial Masculinity p.91 Making an Exhibition of Oneself p.97 ‗Being the Best‘ – the Erotics of Male Competition p.106 ‗Passing‘ as Men p.112 Hysterical Performances p.119 Conclusion p.123 Notes p.124 Chapter Three: Male Bonding – The Racial Other p.126 Filmic Contexts p.127 Jerry Maguire: ‗I‘m Mister black people!‘ p.130 Collateral p.141 Notes p.153 Chapter Four: Tom Cruise, Minority Report and the Repetition of Abuse p.154 Cruise‘s Punishing Fathers p.157 3 Unconscious Masochism and Cruise p.163 Minority Report and the Pre-cognitives p.166 Peeping Tom p.169 The Traumatised Son p.171 Conclusion p.180 Notes p.181 Chapter Five: The Sacrificial Body of Cruise p.183 Oedipus Rex p.183 The Totem Sacrifice p.186 Cruise as Sacrificial Son p.189 Valkyrie p.198 Conclusion p.208 Notes p.209 The Star Persona of Tom Cruise: Conclusion p.211 Appendices p.224 Appendix 1 – Cruise‘s Early Biography p.224 Appendix 2 – Historical and Filmic Contexts p.227 Appendix 3a – Active Masochism and Deleuze p.232 Appendix 3b – Freud and the Compulsion to Repeat p.232 Appendix 3c – Lacan, the Symbolic and the Imaginary p.233 Bibliography p.235 Plot Synopses p.251 A Few Good Men p.251 All The Right Moves p.252 Born on the Fourth of July p.253 Cocktail p.255 4 Collateral p.257 Days of Thunder p.258 Eyes Wide Shut p.259 Far and Away p.261 Interview with the Vampire p.263 Jerry Maguire p.265 Knight and Day p.266 Legend p.268 Lions for Lambs p.270 Losin‟ It p.271 Magnolia p.272 Minority Report p.274 Mission: Impossible p.276 Mission: Impossible II p.278 Mission: Impossible III p.280 Rain Man p.282 Risky Business p.284 TAPS p.286 The Color of Money p.287 The Firm p.288 The Last Samurai p.290 The Outsiders p.292 Top Gun p.293 Tropic Thunder p.294 Valkyrie p.295 Vanilla Sky p.297 War of the Worlds p.298 5 Acknowledgements My thanks go to Prof Mandy Merck for her energetic and insightful supervision and guidance over the course of my studies at Royal Holloway. I am also grateful for the opportunity I have had to present my work at internal postgraduate ‗away days‘, MeCCSA postgraduate conferences and Middlesex University‘s ‗Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society‘ event, for the chance it has afforded me to obtain feedback on my ideas. I would also like to express a heartfelt thank you to my family and friends for their continued support and encouragement. My postgraduate peers Claire Ball, Darren Elliott-Smith and Billy Smart have always been on hand for tea and sympathy as well as the lively exchange of ideas. My aunt, Elizabeth Murphy, has been a great help in the final preparation of these pages. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents Paddy and Mary O‘Donnell for their support - financial, emotional and intellectual - without which this simply would not have been possible! 6 Declaration This thesis contains all my own work. It has not been submitted for a degree at any other university. None of the work within this thesis has been published, or submitted for a previous degree. 7 Abstract Tom Cruise was one of the most financially successful stars of the 1980s and 1990s and remains an important Hollywood player. In his time at Paramount, he negotiated new deals which redefined how stars earned revenue from their films. Yet little substantial study has been made of him or his persona. Cruise came to prominence in the 1980s, an epoch which redefined the terms of masculinity, moving away from a particular martial ideal following American defeat in Vietnam. His persona addresses the consequent anxieties surrounding these significant social changes. In addition to this, his image can be understood within a psychoanalytic framework to be offering a ‗compromise formation‘ to the difficulties of psychosexual development. Cruise appears to offers a challenge to the father, but in reality recedes from Oedipal threat. Chapter One examines the nascent Cruise star persona and its development across his films. The chapter provides a historical overview and contextualisation of the persona. Chapter Two explores how the persona offers a ‗performative‘ model of masculinity based on a heroic martial ideal, as well as his positioning as an object of spectacle and the onscreen homoerotic relationships he enjoys. Chapter Three looks at the star‘s association with the racial ‗other‘ and preoccupation with male friendships at the expense of heterosexual romance. Objectification through spectacle, which black characters and Cruise share in his films, indicate a symbolic shared powerlessness within the hegemony. Chapter Four argues that this lack of status is characterised by Cruise‘s struggle against male authority figures, which represent both corporate America and the punishing father. This relays the trauma of Oedipal struggle, which Cruise recedes from. Chapter Five looks in further depth at the Cruise persona‘s preoccupation with male bonds and lack of interest in women, both indicative of a regression from the phallic to the earlier anal/cannibalistic psycho-sexual stage, as he is unable to overcome the symbolic father. The thesis concludes by suggesting Cruise‘s persona is a compromise: it presents a triumphant young man who in reality is oppressed by patriarchal forces. This compromise is premised on youth and is threatened as Cruise ages, exaggerated by social changes within America. Biologically and socially, Cruise‘s persona is no longer tenable. Examiners Internal: Dr. Pauline Small, Queen Mary‘s, University of London External: Prof. Yvonne Tasker, University of East Anglia 8 Introduction: Masculinity and Performance in the Screen Persona of Tom Cruise Why a Study of Tom Cruise? This thesis offers an interpretation of why Tom Cruise can be considered one of the major stars of the late 20th century. Its central argument is that Cruise‘s enduring popularity can be pinned to the psychodynamic work that the persona undertakes; evidence for this premise is provided by analysing his star sign using a psychoanalytic methodology. It begins by tracing his financial and popular success, locating his image within the context of 1980s American culture. This includes an analysis of the social preoccupations of the Reagan epoch and the manner in which his star sign reflected these concerns. Following this, I lay out the core dynamic of his star image, which I set within the context of star theory originating with Richard Dyer, and through a complete chronological overview of his film career. I then go on to critique Cruise‘s anxious performances of masculinity, which underscore his fragile position within the hegemony, and suggest how these relate to broader gender concerns articulated by his image. The remainder of the thesis conducts an analysis of Cruise‘s persona within a psychodynamic framework, employing key classical Freudian theory to do so. The hypothesis that I put forward is that Cruise‘s enduring box office success and popularity can be understood as a reflection of his persona‘s ability to work through the psychodynamic preoccupations that are presented in his various films. The thesis sets out to examine their particular psychoanalytic constellation and, finally, consider how these concerns link back to issues of masculine identity in modern western culture. Cruise’s Box Office Success In box office revenue, personal earnings and industrial power Tom Cruise (born 3rd July 1962) has proven to be the most successful Hollywood star of the late 20th and early 21st century. Cruise has consistently starred in higher earning films than his contemporaries, especially at his peak in the 1980s and 1990s. Prior to 2010, his lifetime U.S. domestic box office gross total exceeded $2,795,421,790. By that date, he had starred in nine U.S. domestic top ten grossing films, and twice two of his films appeared the top ten in the same year: 1988 (Rain Man [Barry Levinson] at #1 and Cocktail [Roger Donaldson] at #9); 1996 (Mission: Impossible [Brian De Palma] at #3 and Jerry Maguire [Cameron Crowe] at #4).1 In addition to this, Cruise has continually earned more than any of his cinema peers: between 1996 and 2006 he has topped the chart of highest paid movies actors seven times; his nearest competitors, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds and Bing 9 Crosby, have only managed this five times (Basinger, 2007, p.525).
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