Action series celebrates anniversary What the critics thought of "Mission: Impossible" 30 years ago
Mission: Impossible" was released 30 years ago - and laid the foundation for an action series that is still successful today. Why did it make Tom Cruise a global star? And how was the first movie received?
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- Mission: Impossible" was released in cinemas 30 years ago - and finally made Tom Cruise the action star and stuntman of his own films.
- The first part, directed by Brian De Palma, was a mega-success worldwide and grossed around 460 million dollars, many times its budget.
- While audiences were enthusiastic, critics were divided: The style, suspense and iconic action scenes were praised, while the sometimes confusing plot was criticized.
30 years have passed since the makers around director Brian De Palma released the first part of a still immensely successful cinema series with "Mission: Impossible".
And since lead actor Tom Cruise, incidentally, took a big step in his development from actor to his own stuntman.
Significant events took place in May 1996 when the action hit was released in cinemas, significant for the career of a charismatic star and significant for Hollywood action cinema.
Audiences flocked to the cinemas in droves
At least that's how we see it today, but how did contemporaries view the film? Did they also see it as an epochal cinematic event - or did "Mission: Impossible" provoke a more muted reaction?
The audience seemed enthusiastic. They flocked to the cinemas in droves, laying the foundations for the story of top agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his intrepid allies to be told again.
"Mission: Impossible" with Emmanuelle Béart, Jean Reno and Ving Rhames in other roles was a huge success.
In the USA alone, the actioner grossed more than 180 million dollars, while worldwide sales amounted to almost 460 million. Today, these sums would be little more than peanuts for a movie of comparable size, but back then it was a lot.
To put this into perspective: the budget for "Mission: Impossible" was around 80 million, meaning the film recouped its costs several times over.
From "sophisticated" to "unnecessarily confused"
Unlike with viewers, the remake of the 1960s series "Cobra, Take Over" had a harder time with critics.
The "Film-Dienst" found the production, which was "based on classic models", to be "sophisticated", but unfortunately the plot was "unnecessarily confused" and the suspense was only "superficial".
Michael Althen's verdict in the news magazine "Focus" was more positive: He praised the "ambiguous storytelling". With "Mission: Impossible", Brian De Palma demonstrates "how to take a television formula and turn an old concept into modern cinema.
He finds the famous scene in which Agent Hunt creates a copy of the list of all US spies on the computer in the CIA's high-security wing particularly successful. That is, according to Althen. "Pure suspense".
"Mission: Impossible" - a fast-paced movie "with so much style"
There was also plenty of praise, with reservations, from US critics. Critic pope Roger Ebert was confused by the film's plot and questioned whether the screenwriters (David Koepp and Robert Towne) even knew what it was about.
But the plot of "Mission: Impossible" should not be overrated, he added, because neither does De Palma.
The director is more interested in the style than the plot, and that is "wise", because: "If this film were to stop once to explain itself, it would take a very long time."
Ebert was also impressed by the "unexpected twists and turns" and the "non-verbal action sequences".
Overall, "Mission: Impossible" is a fast-paced movie "with so much style" that viewers put aside all questions of logic and understanding and "simply let themselves be carried away". And, incidentally, this is still the case today.
All films in the "Mission: Impossible" series are available to stream on blue TV.
