Top Gun (1986)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, Meg Ryan, Rick Rossovich, Whip Hubley, James Tolkan

Director: Tony Scott

Genre: Action, Drama, Romance

Rating: B

This has long been a favourite movie of mine, and is in my opinion probably one of the best Tony Scott films there is (which is either saying a lot or not much at all, depending on your overall opinion of Tony Scott movies).  Top Gun is ridiculously cheesy at points and really kind of bad, but at the same time it’s so good it’s easy to forgive the cheese.   It’s not exactly a mindless action film, but it definitely has a lot of the characteristics of one – if you don’t spend too much time thinking about the movie and just enjoy the ride then it’s a good one.

Top Gun follows US Naval Aviator Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) and his wingman Radar Intercept Officer Lieutenant Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Edwards) after they essentially luck out and get a ticket to the Top Gun school at NAS Miramar, despite the fact that Maverick is considered to be a rather reckless fighter.  There, Maverick competes with fellow pilot LT Tom “Iceman” Kasansky (Kilmer) for the position of top pilot – with Iceman considering Maverick to be dangerous – while also wooing civilian instructor Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (McGillis).  Oh, and there’s the music.  I love the soundtrack to Top Gun, which is furthered by the fact that my three favourite songs on the soundtrack are all original songs for the movie itself – “Danger Zone,” “Take My Breath Away” and “Top Gun Anthem.”  If you don’t like the first two, you might want to skip this movie as they’re both played a lot.

Okay, so the premise of the movie is a bit ridiculous and in many ways rather typical of the armed forces (in whatever variation) type movie, especially when an outright war isn’t actually used.  The acting, however is good – whatever you might feel about Tom Cruise’s personal life, you can usually count on him to bring in a good performance.  I’m not sure if you can say as much about the rest of the cast, with the exception of Tom Skerritt and Anthony Edwards, who I either don’t know from anything else or can be a bit unpredictable in the roles they pick.  Granted, Tom Cruise has become a bit unpredictable as of late too.  I enjoy the chemistry between Maverick and Charlie, even if I do question just how quickly their relationship progresses – we don’t really get to see it develop, it just happens.  The film’s a bit bogged down by the whole search for why Maverick is the way he is; the daddy issues are both over used and unnecessary.  I would have completely bought the whole “Maverick is reckless because he’s a young guy who’s flying a fucking jet” storyline.  More depth wasn’t really necessary.

Where this film really succeeds, however, is in the jets.  The flying is cool, even if it’s reckless and possibly unrealistic.   I actually really don’t care (or know) if it’s unrealistic and the fact that it’s reckless is a huge part of why it seems so cool.  It is fun watching people do stuff that could potentially get them killed.  That’s why people like watching action flicks; it’s all about the danger that the characters appear to put themselves into.  Top Gun appears to have a lot of danger and cool stunts, which the characters are always eager to point out to us.  Where the movie fails is in its drama and romance, both of which really provides a surplus of cheese.  While there’s chemistry between Maverick and Charlie there’s nothing original, unique, or really cool about the relationship.  The music does kind of fail here too; as much as I love the soundtrack, I do have to say that the same songs are played over and over again, in a way to the detriment of the film itself.  It’s one thing to have a thematic song for a movie, it’s another thing to have a few thematic songs and to play them almost exclusively – something that’s made worse by the fact that this isn’t a movie that should need to depend on the soundtrack.  I love music based movies where the one song is sung more than a few times because it’s the song that the characters are writing or it’s part of a performance, or whatever.  But when it’s just the background music, it can get a bit stale and kind of suggests that there isn’t that much in the way of a music budget – they probably spent it all on the jets.  Which, really, was a wise choice.  I mean, it’s jets.  I can forgive a lot of cheese and a repetitive soundtrack in favour of stunts with jets, especially when I enjoy the songs themselves.