Tom Cruise may be the biggest action star of all time but Clint Eastwood’s iconic career remains unbeatable in Hollywood for one reason.

Tom Cruise’s career in film has always possessed an X-factor, with the actor himself overflowing with on-screen pizzazz. The certified action star of the 21st century was made for the big screens, and rightfully so, given his success with the Mission: Impossible franchise. However, Cruise wasn’t always this starved for adrenaline-packed action spy thrillers.

Tom Cruise [Credit: Paramount Pictures]

For 20 years since his debut, Tom Cruise was an actor’s actor. In that time, he earned 3 Oscar nominations for his roles in Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia. It took him another 23 years to earn the fourth Oscar nomination, and that too as a producer for Top Gun: Maverick.

Although regarded as the most celebrated movie star today, it is no wonder that somewhere along his acting journey, Cruise felt he missed out on an experience that only legends like Clint Eastwood managed to land in their lifetimes.

Tom Cruise fears he will never achieve true greatness

Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven [Credit: Warner Bros.]

Despite surpassing every icon in his profession and rising to the very top of the industry, Tom Cruise claims he misses the extra factor that makes one’s career seem complete. The Top Gun actor isn’t wrong to think that way. In fact, he perfectly surmises the reason why he feels like he is lacking in a certain way compared to other certified icons like Clint Eastwood.

While speaking to Vanity Fair in 2002, Cruise claimed that he doesn’t have a great story to tell about his career. The circumstances may have changed in the 23 years since then, however, according to the actor, he has never been able to achieve something equal to what Eastwood had managed with Unforgiven.

I wish I had that great story of Clint Eastwood with Unforgiven. He had this script, and he put it away for 10 years, and then went and directed this movie, and starred in this movie. And just had a culmination of an entire career. That was just perfect for him. And so I don’t have that Unforgiven. I don’t have it.

Although not on par with Unforgiven, Cruise may have achieved something similar with Top Gun: Maverick. That film, too, was a culmination of sorts of his career’s most defining moment and perfectly encapsulated the quality that made the actor so exceptional in his field.

Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven is a class apart

Unforgiven (1992) starring Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman [Credit: Warner Bros.]

The rough and tumble of Clint Eastwood’s world redefined the Western genre, bringing it out of the chaotic and uncomfortable patriarchy of John Wayne’s era and adding an appeal to the bounty hunting, gunslinging cowboy lifestyle. The Westerns branded with Eastwood’s presence was a sexier, modern take on the ruthless lawlessness that governed the vast, uncharted Midwest America.

Unforgiven took all the ingredients that make a good Western and overturned the genre on its head. The film elevated the American myth of the Old West, while Eastwood himself led the revolution on the aging, near-extinct subculture of the gunslinging cowboys of that bygone era.

The 1992 Western that Eastwood directed and starred in won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, while co-star Gene Hackman took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film won 4 Oscars out of 7 total nominations and currently holds an impressive 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Unforgiven is available to stream on Paramount+ and Prime Video.