Tony Scott's TOP GUN was released in 1986 and is still today the ladies favourite, a movie my dear old mother, who doesn't like movies, will actually sit through until the end, again and again and again, for which I'm very much grateful, but the question is why?
Maverick is a ravishingly beautiful male pilot, young and eager to please, eager to satisfy. He is the best at what he does. We know nothing whatsoever about his life, but we at least know he's the best at what he does... which I always think of as astounding when I see he must be no more than twenty years-old. Now, because this wall poster of a hero is the best at what he does, he is sent to Miramar Naval Air Station deep in the heart of America where the greatest fighter pilot trainers in the world, American, train the greatest fighter pilots in the world, also funnily enough American. So at this entirely Hollywood haven of talent, where the greatest (American) pilots in the world aren't so much the expertly trained deep-set navigators you would expect, but walking, half naked Hercules', here is where Maverick soon learns
of a competition, which if won hands over the prized possession of a much sought-after Top Gun award, and, age clearly not an issue again, the privilege of remaining at Miramar as an instructor. Thus ensues a display of egos amongst the best (American) pilots in the world who, ultimately, amount to nothing more than a fusion of stereotypes and clichés. At which tiring point a little war breaks out to instil some energy back into my congealing blood and stop me fidgeting in my seat. It isn't clear what significance this war, against Russians of course, plays in the world at large or infact in this film as a whole, but it's certainly another good excuse to display the egos of the best (American) pilots in the world as they prepare to show what they are made of, in and out of their jets as they juggle flying and fighting with playing beach volleyball in another fine display, this time of their sweaty muscular bodies. At which point… as my finger rubs the power-off button on the remote control… all hell breaks loose, but not in the air, in Maverick's heart as he falls in love with his female instructor and begins a most unrealistic affair. I must say at this point I am almost always positive, spitting with positivity, that I will switch the film off but I suppose like all human beings I am attracted to the ugly as well as the beautiful and so somehow I sit back to watch the deplorable take-me-to-bed-or-lose-me-forever love interruption until I don't know and simply don't care what is happening, who dies, who lives happily ever after or who walks into a phone box as a pilot and walks out as Superman and flies away to win the war.
They say an ending comes but once a film, and after having watched TOP GUN for two hours I am always crossed between a state of gleeful happiness at it having finished and an anxiety-attack of immediately needing to do something meaningful in my life; but what I usually end up doing, not having the discipline or motivation of the latter, is running out into the street to curse and gesticulate angrily at any passing jets overhead; but it's at this point that my mother would still be watching Tom Cruise's name roll up the screen as Maverick, tears in her eyes and a wet handkerchief in her hands, having loved every single moment of this emotionally-manipulative little film.
In conclusion, something rarely needed for a film review, my problem with TOP GUN isn't only its clear promotional campaign of war and weapons by making it all look so cool, or its aerial fighting sequences, which, however much people praise their realistic sense of confusion ironically have no cohesion… for example, a Russian jet flies over Maverick's jet, the next second Maverick is flying on top of another jet, which I have since learned isn't possible with fighter jets, until it disappears into thin air, then before you can scratch your brain, wondering where the first one went, because it has also disappeared, Maverick is wailing in excitement at having shot down a third. Now, with a jet having flew by him but three seconds before and having shot down another, which actually might have been the first or second one, he ends up being shot down himself from God-knows-where by God-knows-who because, somehow, one particular Russian jet managed to escape detection on his radar. My problem with TOP GUN isn't only this, or even its flagrant use of half-naked sweaty, muscular, hunky young pilots to fill in the gaps that warfare leaves out, it is simply that this film… to be perfectly blunt… and before I simply can't write anything more about this nonsense and suddenly stop writing... to conclude this complete waste of all our time…
(A film-only review; not to be associated with the format it comes on, available bonus features or plastic bits that may or may not be attached to the casing)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
I think everyone needs to step back and think about what this film is, it dosen't claim to be a deep thoughtful analysis of war, it's a cheesy 80's film, and it is good at what it is! It's an icon of the 80's and people should just enjoy it for what it is
scream4bruce 28.10.2006 13:52
Good review!
bengar 04.10.2006 23:06
Hell yeah, i never understood why this film was so popular. Just cheesy american propaganda patriotic rubbish! ben
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Sep 28th, 2006
(Oct 27th, 2006)
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