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“Days of Thunder” can be termed using the Tom Cruise picture label, as it provides the same entertainment that “Top Gun,” “The Color Of Money”, and “Cocktail,” gave. Parts of the plot are beginning to wear out their welcome, but the key ingredients are still effective. They include: 1. The Cruise character, a young and naive, yet skilled boy, eager with potential but needing to control his wild side.
2. Although the older man had already accomplished it all, he was still able to recognize skill when he saw it, especially in the kid, no matter how many times he messed up from being too aloof. He is referred to as The Mentor.
3. She is The Superior Woman, usually older, taller and more mature than the Cruise character, who functions as a Mentor for his spirit, while the male Mentor supervises his craft.
4. This pertains to the elder gifted gentleman and to The Craft He’s expected to master.
5. The Arena, the new world that the young man has to face challenges in, becomes his testing ground.
6. These quintessential components of the specialized knowledge and lore that the movie arcana knows thoroughly and endeavors to teach us through the plot speak are The Arcana.
7. The Trail, the most notable spots where the great masters of The Art contest each other.
8. He is the Proto-Enemy, the villain within the first few minutes of the movie who gives the hero someone to train with. The Cruise Character and Proto Enemy do not see eye to eye at first, but after being lovingly thrust into a unrevivable situation, they learn to forgive each other.
9. The Eventual Enemy is an antagonist who only appears in the closing scene to challenge the hero and test the full range of his skills and knowledge of the Arena and the Arcana.
The quintessential Tom Cruise film is “Top Gun,” in which the young fighter pilot, a prodigy in his own right, was trained by an ex elite pilot, and psychologically prepared by a slightly older woman who taught him how to fly, before he had to battle the hot shots in his unit.
In “The Color of Money,” the young prodigy pool player was coached by a has-been pool hustler who taught him all the tricks of the trade, as well as an experienced woman with slightly more life experience than him, before a two part clash against his loathed rival on the professional pool circuit, and then his dreaded Mentor. In “Cocktail,” the young natural bartender was first taught the trade by an older bartender, only to later be schooled first by an older woman, and then by a younger, but still older woman, all of whom showed him how to move on from them.
“Days of Thunder”, while putting on different forms of entertainment, is crafted in a way that is well executed yet has a predictable structure. The Craft is stock car racing. Mentor is a role by Robert Duvall as a veteran racing team leader. Women in a Superior Position is a physician (Nicole Kidman) who is fascinated by the hero’s vitality but grows him up by enforcing responsible adult behavior. The Arena is the auto racing track, and the Arcana includes such lore as slipstreaming, RPMs, tire temperature, and passings on outside or inside. The Proto Enemy is a driver called Rowdy (Michael Rooker) who treats the hero as a rival and challenges him to racing duels, one of which lands them both in the hospital. The Eventual Enemy is a driver called Wheeler (Cary Elwes) who wants to run the hero into the wall and ultimately take his life. And the Trail is the Southern stock-car circuit with its destination in the sacred city of Daytona.
The film “Days of Thunder” was directed by Tony Scott and just like Scott mastered the photography of machines in “Top Gun”, he did in this movie also. The downfall is that automobiles and auto racing is a bore unless you are right next to the car or they are crashing. Everything else consist of shots of cars racing indistinctly at a track, medium shots of two cars passing each other, and drivers grimacing like they are having a colonoscopy.
As “Days of Thunder” sees it, the primary strategy in stock-car racing revolves around trying to slam into your opponent to push him into the wall and Cruise cars are scraping the walls for half the time they are on track. Most of the racing footage is so fast and loud that it borders on the exciting, though, and the off-track stuff has Duvall’s usually laconic, tender performance; Randy Quaid as the trustworthy car dealer who believes in the kid, and Roker as the perfect Proto Enemy ( he can appear very hateful but with a smile he can change completely).
As the love interest, Kidman does not seem to achieve much or make any lasting impact. Conversely, cruise seems to be terribly miscast here since he is spoon fed with this role. He plays a saint in a village’s holy day procession. His role on the day is not what makes him special, but the way he embodies the faith everyone has in him.
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