TOP GUN

(May 1986, U.S.)

Not since I was ten years-old in 1977 when SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER was released, had a known a movie to have such an impact on the popular culture around me and affected how people dressed, spoke their dialogue and even acknowledged the world around them. TOP GUN was the greatest action spectacle to speak the voice of the great American spirit since RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD-PART II one year prior. But its spirit went beyond the big screen. Sales of the Schott G-1 bomber jacket (or variations of it) and Ray-Ban aviator sun glasses spiked following the film’s release, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I saved up part of my summer salary to buy a pair of the same glasses Tom Cruise wore. Women everywhere quickly learned just how wonderful a game of volleyball could be when played by a group of well-built and topless pilots. And finally, when many saw the movie, they actually declared, "Wow! I want to be a pilot!", and the effects were felt on military recruiting when the U.S. Navy stated the number of young men joining, wanting to be Naval Aviators, went up by five hundred percent. If that isn’t a prime example of the effect of movies on our personal lives, then I don’t know what is.

TOP GUN was the first Tom Cruise movie I went to see on screen since 1983. Whatever he’d done since then, I’d had little interest in. This new movie about young naval aviator pilots given the opportunity to train their fighter skills at the U.S. Navy’s Fighter Weapons School seemed too irresistible a big screen experience to pass up. Even in just a three year period, it looked as if Tom Cruise had grown up considerably since playing the seemingly innocent Joel Goodson in RISKY BUSINESS, or perhaps it was just the fact that he was now a badass fighter pilot dressed in military clothing that made him seem so much older. But it also opened my eyes to the reality of our American fighter pilots; they were young men, practically still boys, and hardly the older looking men I’d seen in old war films on TV. The pilots who possessed the invaluable skills that defended our country against all enemies didn’t actually look like John Wayne or someone of that bygone era. As Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Cruise looked like he could’ve been one of the camp counselors I knew when I was a kid.

I was unsure of the movie when I first saw it. Was there no more to the plot than just a bunch of boys improving their fighter pilot skills at a special "Top Gun" school for the best of the best? My cynicism was brief, as I soon realized just how much the spectacular visual photography and action easily sucked me into the lives of these hot shot pilots and their ongoing need for speed and competition. Maverick’s character, as well as his wing-man and best friend "Goose" (played by Anthony Edwards), is an interesting character not only in the pride he holds toward the honor of defending his country, but also his humorous side that enables him to "buzz" the tower when doing a flyby and breaking into song with "You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling" when trying to pick up an older woman in a bar. The woman is none other than a civilian consultant and instructor named "Charlie" (played by Kelly McGillis) whom Maverick has to obey, even as the two of them become closer and romantically involved. On a daily basis, competition for the ultimate Top Gun trophy is strict, fierce and not without consequence. During an incident in a jet wash of another aircraft, Maverick’s plane goes into an uncontrollable spin and Goose is ejected and killed when he hits the jettisoned aircraft canopy head-first. As tragic as this is, I realize that a death is probably inevitable, as all of the ongoing gung-ho excitement and fun can't possibly last forever. Heartbroken over the loss of his best friend, Maverick’s pain and guilt worsens when the board of inquiry clears him of any responsibility for Goose’s death, and as a result, his flying skills diminish. Attempts to console him by Charlie and others fail, and it looks as though Maverick will quit the entire show.

Choosing to return for the Top Gun graduation party, Maverick and the other pilots are informed of a crisis situation in hostile waters. Now we finally see these hot shot boys in their F-14 jets involved in some real action against Soviet fighters and their MiGs. This, like STAR WARS, is the great battle scene, and it doesn't fail to deliver. America is in the air with our enemies and we’re going to show them a thing or two. We do, forcing the remaining two MiGs to flee. Upon the pilot’s triumphant return to their ship, we can't help but cheer with our pilots because we're Americans, and we knew how to kick ass when we have to. Oh yeah, Maverick and Charlie get back together, but honestly, by then, you hardly care about love and romance in a movie meant to pump up the adrenalin and get your juices flowing.

In a film that’s not science fiction and doesn’t involve CGI, TOP GUN surely features some of the most incredible and electrifying aerial action footage shot on film, right on par with FIREFOX and BLUE THUNDER, though it can be argued that the action in the air is so great, it leaves little for the audience to contend with when the characters aren’t aboard their planes. Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis have an almost implausible chemistry with each other, as if designed only to accommodate the fact that Charlie is Maverick’s teacher and superior, and therefore the significant "cougar" age difference being a necessity to that fact.

One of the most personal stories associated with this film is not for myself, but rather an old college friend whom I shall call Greg S. (because that's really his name). Put simply, Greg loved TOP GUN, and may have even considered it his favorite film for a time. The third time I saw the film on screen was with him at a second run showing at my local college movie theater. Even as I kept my eyes on the screen, I could see Greg fixated in a way I hadn’t seen with anyone else before (clearly this wasn’t his first time experiencing this). When it was over, I recall a conversation of enthusiasm and spirit I’d never had about a movie before. Some years later, after I left college and moved back home, I heard rumors that Greg had left school, and like many other die-hard fans of TOP GUN, joined the Air Force Reserves, wanting to become a pilot. Now, because I’m still friends with him today, I know for a fact that his joining the military had nothing to do with a movie and was simply rumor. While his true reason for joining is hardly relevant anymore, I do know that he served his country in Desert Storm at the start of the ‘90s, and we gratefully thank him for his service. Today, he’s a man of true faith and a published author of fiction and poetry.

Even as we all wait to see what the sequel TOP GUN: MAVERICK will bring us when it’s released in the summer of 2020, one can’t help but recognize the relevance the original film can still deliver in today’s mixed up world of Donald Trump, where we’re constantly trying to define what truly makes "America great". Perhaps we can still define it with the spirit of a movie like TOP GUN and that one golden moment when, like Maverick, we’re still excited to "feel the need, the need for speed!"

Favorite line or dialogue:

Stinger: "Maverick, you just did an incredibly brave thing. What you should have done was land your plane! You don’t own that plane, the tax payers do! Son, your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash! You’ve been busted, you lost your qualifications as section leader three times, put in hack twice by me, with a history of high speed passes over five air control towers, and one admiral’s daughter!"