Up until yesterday, my only experience with the film Top Gun was going on the ride at Canada's Wonderland. As you waited for 2+ hours for two minutes of head banging, body jiggling, feet dangling thrills, you walked through a bunch of paraphernalia from the film that included some costumes, and, if I remember correctly, even a small plane. Though it was well laid out to make for a more interesting line-up, if you hadn't seen the movie, it is really hard to appreciate cut-scenes and dialogue. The film was at least ten years old by the time I first went on the coaster, and that would have been when I was ten. It wasn't until 2008 (22 years later) that it was renamed "Flight Deck" and all the memorbilia was taken down. I wish I could have appreciated it during the dozens of times I waited in that mind-numbing line.
And now that it is too late, I can. Top Gun was the bestselling film of 1986, when Tom Cruise was less crazy and a heck of a lot younger. What was most interesting about the film, to me, was (what seemed to me to be) the seamless inclusion of an actual fighter squadron of Top Gun pilots and use of various military insignia. When doing some "research" for this post, I was quickly enthralled with the various military approvals and censorship that went into make this film the "right" kind of depiction of the US Army. Removing course language, removing Charlie's officer status to allow for a "legal" relationship between enlisted personnel and a civilian contractor, was just a start. Removing references to Cuba, a then hot button issue, and replacing it with "international waters" allowed for the some of the political elements of a film about the military to somehow become more suppressed.
Patriotism in this film was both more blatant and more hidden than its equivalent in recent years. By making it about a specific flight school whose job was to be the best at killing bad guys in airplanes, there is no doubt that the film largely stands as a helpful reminder to the 1980s public that America is #1, with the best of the best (Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer) taking big risks and being dreamy while they saved the homeland from evil and uncertainty. This kind of carefully constructed narrative about army life and the trials and tribulations remains a cornerstone of American film making, though I would say that these narratives have become more complicated, and now at least rely more heavily on the past when the story they want to tell is a straightforward "Ra-Ra!" tale about America's troops.
One other issue that I discovered in my research is the death of an aerobatic pilot during the film. Art Scholl and his plane were never recovered when he crashed after an attempting a flat spin and losing control. Though the film acknowledged this type of incident through Goose's death, as well as through a dedication at the end of the film, I felt that the reality of the situation could have been better discussed. Perhaps it was at the time? Who knows. Anyway, it is unfortunate to hear of this kind of disaster on a film set.
Now, let's talk about the film. 1980s masculinity, with a leather jacket and a motorcycle, matched with the big hair, skinny jeans 1980s femininity, was occasionally distracting and always interesting to behold. I felt like Meg Ryan and Kelly McGinnis were having a contest over who had the most hair, or at least who could make it look like they had the most hair. I found Charlie, initially introduced as an astrophysicist and top instructor, very quickly took on a submissive role to Maverick and really lost a goodly amount of her power and independence. This strong female lead was really not at all.
The synthesized muzak which was used to score the film pretty annoying, but served to distinguish this as a drama more than an action thriller. This was about people, people! I loved the song in the final credits. T & I rocked out pretty hard to it. Other than that, I found the music really aggravating. But seriously, "Take My Breath Away", for better or worse, had to be introduced to the world somehow. If that was what 80s sex was like, though I am glad I am a product of it... I am glad I will never get to experience it. Yuck-o!
In summation, a fun, predictable movie which is made more fun by the inclusion and control of the American military. Not something that I think could be produced now.
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