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The Complete Works Ep. 106: Tom Cruise – TAPS (1981)

·33 min·2 clips

Sean Penn, Tom Cruise and Evan Handler play three distinct cadets, and Cruise is the "gung-ho" one who shows maturity in his first full film.

1. The Complete Works Ep. 106 reviews Taps, the December 25, 1981 release that runs about two hours and six minutes and is Tom Cruise's first full film. 2. Host Doug Hess, working through Tom Cruise's filmography for Filmbook, watched the film on Hulu after not having seen it for several years. 3. Hess calls Taps "a good film" with a solid cast, but he says it is "unrealistic in a lot of aspects" and gives it a 6 out of 10. 4. He summarizes the setup: George C. Scott's commander learns that the 141-year-old Bunker Hill Military Academy will be replaced by condominiums, and the cadets seize the campus under a student cadet major. 5. His criticisms are the absence of any faculty besides Scott, live ammunition given to cadets he pegs at fourth to sixth grade, and police and National Guard who are "standoffish" instead of aggressive. 6. He praises the casting: Scott recalls his Oscar-winning Patton role, Timothy Hutton is a balanced cadet major, Sean Penn is grounded, and Cruise is the "gung-ho" cadet whose energy he links to Born on the Fourth of July. 7. He compares Taps to Toy Soldiers and Lord of the Flies, and notes that other early-80s cadet-era films such as Stripes, Private Benjamin and An Officer and a Gentleman feature older characters. 8. On business, he reports a roughly $14 million budget, a US and Canada gross of almost $36 million, and an opening weekend of about $93,000, with cable airings on HBO and TBS keeping the film in circulation. 9. His trivia includes a 45-day orientation at the real Valley Forge Military Academy, more than 2,000 actors auditioning for Penn's role, Cruise's switch from a background part to David Shawn, and a Light My Fire replacement on Amazon Prime that makes a Penn quip "make no sense." 10. Fans of Tom Cruise's early career and 1980s cadet films will enjoy this.

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