Ever since my DVD collection collided with my girlfriend's, this movie has been eyeing me. No, I've never seen Top Gun. Shocking as I feel I might be the only one. (Running with this failure, let me just take the time to expose some other renown films I have also yet to watch: Braveheart, Godfather 2 & 3, JFK, Seven Samurai, Dr. Strangelove, Lawrence of Arabia, Gone with the Wind, Taxi Driver, Manhattan, 81/2, and Network - sad to say I've actually seen very little of Paddy Chayefsky's work. Let the "booing" commence.) But seeing as there are rumors of Cruise working on a new sequel I thought it deserved a go, and...
What a homoerotic film! I'm not ragging on it for this or anything, but, I mean, 'BROMANCE" doesn't even begin to explain the camaraderie these pilots have for one another. Locker room banter. Windmill hi-fives. Always cheering or teasing one another while wearing nothing but a towel or whitie-tidies. Then you have the rivals, Maverick and Iceman, constantly starring each other down - I can only imagine what's going through their minds. It always looks as though they're on the brink of a huge make-out session. Oh, and, of course, there's the infamous volleyball scene. Never even seeing this movie, I knew of this bit. (I'm pretty sure anyone with at least a moderately familiar with pop-culture knowledge does.) Man-on-man, no shirt, jeans, baby oil, and aviator sunglasses... all in slow motion. That's how you do volleyball.
All kidding aside, the film was good as many of Tony Scott's films are. It was fun and delivered on the action. I actually thought of this film a lot like an old buddy-cop flick in the sense that there's scene after scene where the commander will be screaming at our two pilots for being reckless and dangerous; they break all the rules, but always get the job done. Regardless of what I mention earlier about everyone seeing this film but me, let me just surmise the premise as a reminder for all. Hot shot air fighter pilots from across all branches of the US military are entered into special training program called TOP GUN. Their goal: to make the best even better. Basically that's the story. We follow two pilots from the Navy (Maverick and Goose) who are elected into the program after their peer has some sort of mental breakdown and drops out. They, amongst the rest of the Top Gun students, all vie for the position to be the best in the school. SPOILERS. Goose ends up dying after some plane malfunction. Maverick waivers on the decision of dropping out. Iceman goes on to win the award for best pilot. Maverick returns and flys with Iceman on a real mission where they manage to put their rivalry aside to the win the day. Yay for your happy endings... Oh, and Maverick gets the girl. Of course there's a girl in the story, but, from what I gather, they didn't really need her unless the producers we're trying hard to balance out the film's homoerotic vibe.
For all of those out there that have either seen the film or know a little about fighter jets and all that jazz, I have a question to pose. What is the purpose that pilot who sits in the rear of the jet (AKA Goose's role)? From what I can gather they do absolutely nothing. I know they definitely don't fly. That became obvious int he first scene when Maverick's peer has that mental breakdown and can't fly the plane back to the aircraft carrier. All the co-pilot could do during this precarious time was just shout ahead saying, "Fuel's low. Let's get back to the base." Is their job to just monitor the fuel gage? Please, someone explain this to me. Otherwise, I'm thinking these "co-pilots" are a total wash - sorry, Goose.
Let me end this post posing one more question: Which TOP GUN character are you?
Sweet mustache! I would like to Viper...
...but we all know damn well I'm just "that guy".
Braveheart is one of my favorite movies of all time and Dr. Strangelove is probably my favorite "before I was born" movie of all time. I give both of them the highest amount of recommendation I can. By only listing Godfather 2 and 3, I take it you saw the first one. In my opinion it was easily the best one, so you don't need to rush off and see the other two. I haven't seen any of the other movies you listed, either, but Lawrence of Arabia is at the very top of my movie backlog and Marissa owns Top Gun.
ReplyDeleteTo make note of your recent post... I haven't seen Mulholland Drive either. To be fair I have attempted to watch it on a handful of occasions, but could just never finish it. I did manage to catch the scene Sween always raved about being really scary - the one where this homeless guy randomly jumps out from behind a restaurant building. With what little I've seen, I definitely agree with your "what the fuck?" comment.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of only partially watching movies, the same is true for most of the other films I "haven't" seen. There a scenes here and there for Braveheart I've seen (mostly on TV). I remember renting Dr. Strangelove a long time ago, but never finishing it. Same is true for JFK and Network. I lack discipline. For shame.
And, yes, I did see the first Godfather. For a film hailed as possibly the greatest movie ever made, I was honestly not that impressed (probably why I haven't moved onto the sequels)... but I'll save that discussion for another time.
Network and Dr strangelove are two of my favorite films. I actually had to watch both of them in a politics in film class.
ReplyDeleteI should also mention I haven't seen Tootsie. That might not seem like a big deal, but for anyone that's been to film school understands that it's used as again and again for examples on screenwriting. I imagine it's comparable to being a philosophy major and earning your degree without ever reading Plato's The Republic. I'm a total sham.
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