Written by: Jim Cash & Jack Epps Jr.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt
Rating: [2/5]
When the best of the best gather in any area of expertise, some peacocking may occur in their attempt to definitively reach the summit. This looks different in various worlds but nothing measures up to the amount of horrid testosterone in Top Gun. A film that enters the arena with quite a thrilling concept and fails to deliver on it because of its obsession with trying to create thrills and not having the means to do so.
U.S. Navy pilots, when reaching the top of their group get invited to Top Gun, the Naval Fighter Weapons School at Naval Air Station Miramar where the best group gets crowned with the honor. While getting there through alternate positions, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) and Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) make their way where they see their tactics will be challenged in this danger zone.
One thing Top Gun has going for it that can never be criticized is the awesome soundtrack attached to it with some legendary tunes of Kenny Loggings going absolutely bananas. From “Danger Zone” and “Playing with the Boys,” the music department came to play, which has certainly contributed to the reputation and fandom this film has maintained since its release in the 1980s. It adds to the overall mood and tone of this feature where you know it has its cheesy nonsense all throughout but allows it to maintain some charm throughout along with the ruggedness of what transpires out in the planes.
Where the film loses me comes from two areas: the general viewpoint of the feature and the near pointlessness in the entire exercise these men participate. These areas could be opposed with vehement disagreement but they never quite hit the mark for me. For example, this world of Top Gun seeks to live in this fantasy that benefits men and has women around as essentially something they get to play with on the side. No scene makes this more clear than Maverick’s first interaction with Charlie (Kelly McGillis). He tries his cheesy pickup lines and when it fails she makes it clear she’s having dinner with someone else at the bar and heads to the women’s restroom. Instead of going home and licking his wounds, Maverick decides to follow her into the women’s restroom and Charlie reacts almost like she gives him credit for violating her privacy and following her into the lavatory. This film lives in a fantasy where a woman would not only not feel unsafe with a man acting in this manner but seemingly welcomes it as the man is doing whatever it takes to get his girl. It’s incredibly juvenile and simply does not allow me to take this film seriously with any of these individuals.
For some, the overly masculine approach of this feature falling all the way into homoeroticism becomes one of the high points of the feature. When it falls into that area it certainly becomes something a bit more intriguing. Nothing brings it together more than the volleyball scene where Maverick inexplicably wears jeans out in the beach and generally, these moments between the men when they peacock for each other demonstrate the wild nature of these men, which one would have to be in order to get involved with this line of work.
Additionally, we have the whole conceit of Top Gun as a place where these pilots go on these rides where they prove their maneuverability and ways to work together in order to reach the top of the class. Not only does this self-contained practice have no real stakes that feel impactful, but the way these scenes in the planes get shot lacks any real dynamism to make the experience something worthwhile. Instead, we get these scenes in the cockpit and then aerial scenes where the connection together never really synthesizes into something cohesively exhilarating, which could come down to the limitation of what could be crafted at the time, but that does not excuse it at all.
While certainly having some elements to enjoy Top Gun falters in coming together as one feature film. Its incredibly juvenile characters and overall demeanor as a feature take away from what could have been a truly successful story. Actually, they did just that with its much superior sequel, Top Gun: Maverick where they correct all of the criticisms I have with this feature and in turn maximize the full potential of this concept with top marks. This feature, however, does not get the job done and should remain grounded.
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