Top Gun

How well I remember my high school classmates gushing over 1986's TOP GUN.  Mostly females, but the guys dug it, too. Constantly quoted and re-enacted.  Turns out my eleventh grade chemistry teacher even had a son who was a Navy fighter pilot in a program similar to the one in the movie.  To say that it was a phenomenon is really understating it.  It was damned near everywhere.  You couldn't escape Kenny Loggins' main theme, "Danger Zone".   These are not complaints, and after all these years I still really enjoy the hell outta director Tony Scott's movie.  It is pure pop culture, nearly every scene iconic in some way, even as the film tends to fail on at least a few levels.

The dialogue.  It takes its bid from a thousand earnest military dramas before it, likely sounding trite even during wartime.  When TOP GUN is not mired in dialogue with technical details, we get lines like "What I'm about to tell you can end my career."  My favorite: "... if you screw up just this much, you'll be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong!"  That line, by the way, is delivered by James Tolkan, who plays Commander Stinger.  Remember him as Mr. Strickland from the BACK TO THE FUTURE movies?

The romance.  I'm not the first to point out that Maverick (Tom Cruise) and flight instructor Charlie (Kelly McGillis) don't exactly ignite sparks.  Their banter is this side of forced.  Their love scene is (wisely) shot in the ever reliable silhouette.  They're both appealing, just not together.

The drama? Many emotional scenes deliver the goods. I really liked the somber opening sequence involving Cougar (John Stockwell).  While Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr.'s screenplay never met a cliche it didn't like (including a bar serenade/sing-a-long to an oldie), all of the personality clashes among Maverick, Goose (Anthony Edwards), Iceman (Val Kilmer),  Viper (Tom Skerritt), Jester (Michael Ironside) and others are always entertaining.  Meg Ryan, in an early role, makes an impression as Goose's bride.

The plot follows the flyboys as they attend 'Top Gun", a Naval Fighter Weapons school near San Diego.  They're competitive, all right.  Maverick, a very talented but insubordinate young buck, will eventually learn that you never leave your wingman and humility ain't such a bad thing, even though flybys by the tower and inverted maneuvers with F-14 Tomcats are great fun.  There are several exciting aerial dogfights with unidentified enemies piloting MIG-28s.   These stunt sequences are electric and why you want to see TOP GUN.  

Er, for some it might be that totally gratuitous shirtless volleyball scene.

Speaking of which, some find TOP GUN to be one long bit of homoerotic subtext.  The story of a man struggling with his sexuality.  Quentin Tarantino had a cameo in the unfortunate indie SLEEP WITH ME as a character who goes on a rant about this at a party.  The arguments can be made, I guess, but as always if you're looking for (or predisposed to finding) something, you'll probably see it.  I think a stronger argument can be made for the boys loving their aircraft and the thrill of pulling Gs more than other humans, male or female, despite all the wingman jazz.

In the end, TOP GUN is just good old fashioned Hollywood fun.  How's the sequel? Hold my beer......