Looking back, Born on the Fourth of July was Cruise's best chance to win an Oscar. It was his first shift into really dramatic acting. It's a socially conscious movie and Cruise even gets the added physicality of playing a man crippled by the war. Then swoops in Daniel Day Lewis who laughs in the face of Cruise's two useless legs. "Paraplegia? That's cure. How about one foot?". I didn't care much for My Left Foot. It's more of a performance than a movie, similar to Still Alice, Shine, or any number of films of that ilk. But damn, Daniel Day Lewis is good in it. I think he was a known enough quantity at the time that it wasn't a case of Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, after which, people weren't sure if DiCaprio was or wasn't actually handicapped until he showed up on the red carpet. But, if this was the first I was seeing of Daniel Day Lewis, I could've been fooled.
Speaking of Daniel Day Lewis, is there anyone with a higher hit rate for Oscar attention films than him? Meryl Streep is, of course, the queen of Oscar nominations and has no peer, but I think DDL has her beat for overall Oscar attention. By my count, he has been in 18 theatrically-released films. Only one - Gandhi - has won Best Picture. However, a staggering 13 of his films have received an Oscar nomination of some sort. Many, of course, were for acting. He has 5 nominations. He's been in 7 Best Picture nominees. 11 of the films he's been in were nominated for their screenplays. The man picks Oscar players remarkably well.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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