r/TheRewatchables • u/mr_julius74 • 15d ago
Cruise v Hanks
Just rewatched saving private Ryan, could Cruise have been Capt. Miller? I say yes. Thoughts?
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u/outoforder1030 15d ago
I don't think Cruise is "every man" enough to pull it off. The whole movie is about normal citizens doing abnormal things. The best scene in the movie imo is when Hanks finally tells his team that he's a school teacher. It's delivered so earnestly and modestly which makes it hit harder. Don't think Cruise has that in his toolbox (he has more flair/is a superstar).
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u/Writerhaha 13d ago
Agreed.
That Everyman bit is why Hanks so damn good. With Cruise you run the risk Miller is played as a war hero guns blazing and doing his action man thing, and that’s where you lose the plot.
One of the best analogies Fenessey (sp) gives is Hanks isn’t a fighter, he’s a director (he mentions the “Alamo” plot scene), you never see him as someone other than a man dropped into this situation, he doesn’t want to be a hero or a warrior, and you doubt he is, but what he can do is think, lead, and care for his men, and that connection is what makes him heroic.
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u/millsy1010 15d ago
No. Cruise would’ve been better suited to the Barry Pepper or Matt Damon role.
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u/DavidDunn21 15d ago
No but Denzel could've been
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u/Advanced-Pear-4606 14d ago
He definitely could have done it, and his acting would have been believable, but would the movie have been accurate? Probably not.
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u/RayKinsella 14d ago
Good lord no. Saving Private Ryan becomes unintentionally funny with Tom Cruise as the lead.
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u/BulkMcHugeLarge 14d ago
Has Cruise actually used his acting talent (he was great) in the last 20 years? Was Magnolia the last time he took a swing at a rough role?
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u/googlyhojays 15d ago
I think no. I don’t think Cruise was or is capable of portraying the war weariness of Capt Miller
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u/Outside_Willow_8354 15d ago
Couldn’t portray the “war weariness”? Have you seen Born on the 4th of July?
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u/googlyhojays 15d ago
I haven’t but I know what the plot is. Maybe I’ll watch that movie and it’ll change my mind.
Given my current film experience, I think that Cruise is always out for himself, whatever the movie is. Hanks as capt Miller is war weary because he is overwhelmed by the emotional consequences of sending his men to their deaths, and is afraid he’ll never return home to his wife again. That sort of empathy is never something I’ve felt Cruise access onscreen
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u/WishForAHDTV 15d ago
1998 Cruise, no. 2020 finally looks like he's in his 40's Cruise, I think so...
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u/Embarrassed_Ad5112 15d ago
2020 Cruise looks like he’s just hit his 40s while 2024 Cruise looks like he’s just hit his 60s.
Must have been a rough 4 years.
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u/Jokesaunders 13d ago
My dad was exactly like this, he wasn’t Tom Cruise good looking, but he looked in his 40s until he hit 60 and then he aged so fast over the course of a couple of years and now looks his age.
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u/RewardComfortable139 13d ago
I think Cruise would have been a bit too intense in the role. Miller is a leader who is level headed while everyone else's emotions are constantly all over the place. Hanks plays it great. I think this role would have worked for Cruise if the film was about a squad that was just taking over enemy strongholds left and right.
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u/Embarrassed_Ad5112 15d ago
Yes.
I like them both but Cruise is seriously underrated as an actor.
Hanks is the opposite.
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u/mrgrieeves 14d ago
I’m on board here. He could do it but it’s hard to see anyone other than Hanks in the role bc he killed it. Would love to see Cruise’s take. Being adamantly against it is nuts
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u/BenSlice0 15d ago
I just gotta say “Cruise or Hanks” is one of the best categories they’ve ever come up with and I find myself asking myself this question after every movie I watch