Top Gun (1986)

★★★
Tony Scott’s testosterone-fueled U.S. Navy recruiting film Top Gun promises to deliver the goods and does so with resounding glee. It’s as reckless as its main character, veering between exciting aerial dogfight scenes and characters who don’t really grow but react. It’s an early indicator that Tom Cruise could carry an action movie, something he would do well into his 50s with no sign of losing his step. It takes a risk by not featuring a traditional antagonist, despite its cold war themes, and instead internalizes the challenges for the hero to overcome. This works to a point. Watching the movie is the equivalent of downing a box of energy drinks, because once the adrenalin rush wears off all that’s left is the memory of what took place in the skies and that iconic soundtrack. Everything in between is largely filler.

Lieutenant Peter "Maverick" Mitchell is a hotshot aviator who uses unconventional tactics to achieve the objective. Over the Indian Ocean, Maverick shows off his plane-handling skills by flying upside down over an enemy jet. After being informally reprimanded by his commanding officer, Maverick and his partner Goose (Anthony Edwards) are sent to the Navy’s elite fighter school in Miramar, California to train with the best. It’s a school filled with pilots with something to prove, and everyone is necessarily macho about being the top guy in order to win the trophy at graduation. This is best demonstrated at a bar, where Maverick and his friends serenade Charlie Blackwood (Kelly McGillis) while she's minding her own business. The next day at the school, instructor Rick "Jester" Heatherly (Michael Ironside) introduces everyone to Charlie, a top Pentagon official with a top-secret clearance and an expert on MiG aircraft. Everyone is either amused or embarrassed.

Maverick’s rival is Iceman (Val Kilmer), who criticizes him as dangerous. Much of the training involves Iceman and Maverick vying for the top spot, which features some technically amazing flight sequences. There is also Maverick's romance with Charlie, which slowly develops and culminates with a love scene scored to Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" and that prompted my cousin, with whom I watched this in 1987, to remark that he wanted to be a Navy pilot one day (he never did). Late in training, Maverick experiences a personal tragedy that makes him question his desire to continue. Of course, he will continue, a decision that will lead to his participation in the movie's climactic battle against MiG jets. The final fight is terrific stuff, and the combination of visual and sound editing heightens not only the excitement but also the difficulty of engaging in this kind of warfare.

The climax shows Maverick pulling himself together to apply his training. He's confident and cocky, but even when he showboats his skills, he does so without putting his fellow pilots in jeopardy. At one point, he declares that his plane and crew come first. Behind the bravado is a pilot serious about his job. He thinks outside the box, coming up with unorthodox methods to control his plane and earning plaudits from his classmates in the process. Opposite him is Tom "Iceman" Kazansky. Kilmer plays him not simply as an arrogant rival but a pilot who displays genuine concern for Maverick's style. Standard operating procedures exist for a reason, and Iceman is correct to hold Maverick to those standards, which evolved from years of lessons learned the hard way. It's an uneasy rivalry, based on professionalism rather than ambition. Kilmer finds the right notes to present Iceman as the sensible counterpoint to Maverick's nature.

There is speculation out there that this movie is dripping with homoeroticism. I don't buy it. There's a scene in which the characters play volleyball without wearing shirts. So what? Is this aimed at the men in the audience or the women? My vote goes to the women. Later the men are in the locker room and some of them only have a towel on. That's what it looks like in the men's locker room. I suspect that this idea of Top Gun being homoerotic originated as a joke that took on a life of its own. Either that, or maybe someone was searching for a talking point because the movie is admittedly shallow. The chemistry between Maverick and Charlie is good but rushed. The selling point is the action, which is spectacular. In addition, the movie's adherence to authenticity is admirable, though some changes were made for dramatic purposes (there's no such thing as a Top Gun trophy). There's some overexplaining of Navy customs, like when Jester informs the students not to salute the civilian Charlie, even though they undoubtedly know that (that's just to make it clear to the audience of her standing).

Top Gun is a sound and sight show, and a good one. The story is thin but there's enough going on to get from point A to point B to point C and so on. Cruise is fun to watch as Maverick. Tom Skerrit as Commander Mike "Viper" Metcalf is the commanding officer of the school and knew Maverick's father. He sees the potential in the young student to be a standout aviator. The soundtrack, including Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone," highlights the events on the screen in an unintrusive way. I used to dislike this movie. My feelings had a lot to do with the enemies, who have no motivation other than to provide our heroes with a chance to showcase their abilities and let director Tony Scott hone the skills that would make him such a reliable storyteller over the next two and a half decades. Now I see it differently. Despite my misgivings, the movie is enjoyable on a visceral level. The MiG pilots are presented as nothing more than bothersome pests, but if you're a pilot providing coverage and suddenly the enemy flies into radar range, you're not going to ponder his motivation. I wanted to know the purpose and even the nationality of the MiG pilots, who could be from any of the Eastern Bloc states or Russia itself. Now, I don't think it's that important. Maverick's period of doubt is his greatest enemy. It's not much, but it's enough.

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