Taps
The oldest Tom Cruise movie in the retrospective is Taps, and there are 2 scenes included.
It's beautiful, man. Beautiful.
I initially thought this was gonna be ANOTHER military propaganda film but instead it's another coming-of-age one. Although this one serves its purpose best in my opinion. It's not a totally flat stupid story that's trying to touch down as many sensitive topics that affect teenagers as possible but really concentrates on plot and building dynamics between characters. However, the plot isn't really great, yet it's watchable and has a few moments. The military aspect is just a placeholder in my opinion, for basically anything. General Bache is the father figure for these boys or atleast for Brian and that's the cause they are rebelling for. The movie captures that commitment of teenagers, also how easily they are manipulated and how important a good role model is. I think you can still easily apply this to today's world, so that part of the movie is very well done.
For the rest it's an okay to sometimes good youth drama.
Solid - strong 3 stars