For the past half century, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, also known as Tom Cruise, has been a highly conspicuous—and complex—figure in the American film industry: one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, a powerful producer and advocate for the cinema, and the subject of endless tabloid gossip, rumor, and mythology. This course traces his career from his defining breakout roles (Risky Business, Top Gun) to his increasingly “serious” actorly work (Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut) to his status as an action-blockbuster icon and stunt man (the Mission Impossible franchise, Edge of Tomorrow, Jack Reacher). Considering Cruise’s career through the lens of what critic/curator Dave Kehr calls “acteurism,” this course examines the complex authorship of big-budget films involving a powerful actor-producer working with a roster of illustrious auteurs, including Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Tony Scott, Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Brian De Palma, John Woo, and Michael Mann. Through a biographical and speculative investigation into the actor’s upbringing, romantic life, and advocacy for the Church of Scientology, the course reads Cruise’s body of work as a narrative of his distinctive and conflicted star persona. [Tracks C, M, S]