Do you feel the need? The need for speed? My brother did after he watched Top Gun,
the adrenaline-soaked 1986 movie about a cocky fighter pilot living in
his father’s shadow. Like many others who watched those jets zoom past
each other executing fancy maneuvers, he eventually joined the Navy, and
while he didn’t end up becoming a pilot, this movie remains a favorite
in my house.
It stars Tom Cruise as Maverick, a hotshot whose
overconfidence is his biggest asset and liability. He’s a brilliant
flyer, but he has a tendency to take unnecessary risks. As the movie
begins, he and his best friend Goose (Anthony Edwards) have just
enrolled in Top Gun, a program that trains the most accomplished pilots
in the Navy. While the jovial Goose is generally well-liked, Maverick
faces some hostility, especially from Val Kilmer’s Iceman, who sees his
methods as dangerous.
For aviation enthusiasts like my dad and
brother, much of the movie’s appeal is in the explosive firefights.
While these are what make the movie so distinct, I find the spectacle a
bit dizzying, and I prefer the human drama unfolding on the ground. In a
classic scene that has rendered the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’
taboo in most karaoke joints catering to Naval officers, Maverick meets
Charlie (Kelly McGillis), a no-nonsense beauty he soon learns will be
his flight instructor. Maverick may have the moves when it comes to
MiGs, but can he win over this cool-headed teacher, especially when such
a relationship would have to be clandestine?
This is the movie that brought us Take My Breath Away, the steamy song that seeps its way into the score at nearly every opportunity. I prefer the fist-pumping Danger Zone,
though the former was the theme song for my senior prom. But when it
comes to music, what I like best are the performances by Cruise and
Edwards, which are more exuberant than melodious, aside from Edwards’
perfectly passable piano playing. While Maverick and Charlie heat up the
screen, it’s his friendship with Goose that is the true heart of the
movie. I also like Maverick’s relationship with the accomplished Viper
(Tom Skerritt), who serves as a mentor both as a skilled pilot and a
friend of his late, wrongly maligned father, and Meg Ryan turns in a
sweet performance as Goose’s boisterous wife.
Whenever my dad watches Top Gun,
he likes to point out inaccuracies like pilots taking off their masks
mid-flight, which no doubt was done primarily so we could see their
faces better. Certain aspects of the movie paint the Navy in a rather
unflattering light, though that didn’t stop thousands of boys like my
brother from feeling inspired to take to the skies after watching it.
With the movie smack in the middle of the 1980s, some of the dialogue is
a bit on the cheesy side, but that adds to the fun, as does a running
joke involving an officer who really ought to know better than to accept
a steaming cup of coffee when an irrepressible pilot is coming in for a
landing nearby.
While Top Gun is not my favorite Tom Cruise movie – that honor goes to the underrated Far and Away
– it did serve as my introduction to him, so it’s little wonder I tend
to think of him as being pretty hot on himself. Of course, that demeanor
does seem to permeate many of his roles, and like those others,
Maverick can be pretty hard to take. All the same, I can’t help but root
for him as he faces daunting challenges in the air and a painful
maturation process on terra firma as he goes from a man whose “ego’s
writing checks [his] body can’t cash” to a man truly ready to face the
world.
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