David O'ConnellTOP GUN: A First Encounter
April 6th 2010 04:26
Maverick.............Goose... ...........Iceman. These names meant nothing to me. Naturally I’d perused the Top Gun video cover countless times over the years but that was a place to which I was reluctant to venture; a place I’d idealistically conceived - rightly or wrongly – in my imagination, with its overuse of sunglasses, sleek air fighters, corny one-liners, cheesy pop song anthems and a squeaky voiced Tom Cruise melting the heart of an older woman who should know better. As if the body of work director Tony Scott has amassed in the intervening years – most of which I've avoided like the plague – wasn’t enough of a deterrent. I’d chanced upon The Hunger (1983) in my youth only to be left with the indelible image of Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve making out behind a billowing, lacy curtain - a curtain just thick enough to obstruct the real action going down. I felt bitterly cheated at the time, and still do. But you move on from these things.
Fast forward more than 20 years and a portentous moment had arrived. Inexplicably I found Top Gun in my DVD player. I felt compelled to press ‘Play’.
What the hell was I thinking? That perhaps the tides of time might have been inordinately kind to a film once synonymous with the concept of ‘coolness’, even altering its DNA and rendering it watchable?
The scenes most widely lauded - the training and combat scenes - are surprisingly boring affairs, mostly because they seem so random and without any accurate impression of the placement of the aircrafts. For the life of me, I couldn’t tell who was who. Not that it really mattered. For though underwhelming in a dramatic sense, these scenes are unexpectedly funny. Mostly because everything is said rapidly - and twice. Time and again, we hear: “I’m goin in I’m goin’ in”. “Look out Maverick look out Maverick”. "Coffee break coffee break". (Ok, that last one is almost certainly made up). And then there’s the co-pilots turning around in their seats to gaze behind as another enemy goes zooming by. Seriously, didn’t they have decent rear-view mirrors they could subtly jiggle back in those days?!?
The whole concept of a school for these jet fighter pilots is so frivolously handled that you can’t help snickering aloud. Tom Skerritt - whose demise in Alien brought unending terror to my 10 year old heart – is their chief instructor and gives a suitably serious turn, trying to convey the gravitas of his position. With only a few scant lines of instructional gobbledygook to spew however, I wondered how anyone ever passed.
The posturing is silly but provides instant, cheap gratification. Especially notable are the plethora of locker room scenes when the boys return from their latest training exercise to brag and condescend, Val Kilmer’s absurdly tall hair competing for attention with his stupidly-exposed teeth. Having so few lines really suits him because The Iceman seemingly has the IQ of a broken doorknob. He plays the gloating fool we know will inevitably be forced to back down and repent; to bask reluctantly in the glow of the intense young man who will save the universe while we blink or ponder a toilet break, thus exorcising the ghosts of the father who died before him attempting to perform these same heroic feats. Or was that another movie? I think I’m remembering all this right. Though I admit that after only 3 days my impressions of Top Gun are fading faster than effervescence from a discarded can of Sprite.
Then there's the distraction of Kelly McGillis. Perhaps it’s only me but she still seems too old for the role of Maverick’s love interest. She was 29 at the time but I swear to God she looks at least 41. Wooed by the lamest karaoke-type moment you’ll ever be privileged to cringe at, she comes waltzing into intermittent scenes armed with abundant evidence for why she soon faded into the semi-oblivion of raunchy, sub-literary, lesbian stunt roles in obscure Australian films. (True, there was only one, but it was so treacherous it did kind of feel like a sadistically-meshed trilogy). The first erotic love scene between her and Maverick is a decent one, occurring late in the day so that their undressing leads to some sustained tongue-probing in silhouette. Really good stuff right there. And yet with Cruise’s smooth, youthful looks it still feels vaguely like watching a scene between a virginal schoolboy and his predatory, desperate neighbour. Maybe a young Meg Ryan, who turns up as Goose’s mop-haired ditzy blonde spouse, might have been a better bet.
The finale is strangely unemotional: the airway dogging, the unknown, unnamed enemy, the measly explosions contorting the ideological slant of all-American heroes sustaining their superiority over “them” - the dirty rotten bastards.
Poor “them”. They never had a chance.
I've now seen Top Gun. I've now seen Top Gun.
Watch a trailer here.
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Comment by Anonymous
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Cinema Autopsy
These days I have mixed feelings about it. Its perfectly formulaic approach to filmmaking is something I both grudgingly admire and am repulsed by. It led the way for the development of High Concept producer driven cinema that was completely critic proof. The almost non sequitur dialogue and operatic melodrama of the narrative is both perversely engaging and deplorable. It’s a film of its time but along with Flashdance reveals much about where Hollywood is at now. I love it and I hate it…
Anyway, great piece!
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Bad film then, terrible film now...the lack of chemistry between Cruise and Mcgillis makes it seem like the love scenes are mother to son incestuous.
That Val Kilmer was stuck in the Iceman mold for a time later is one of the true real world fatalities of this music video.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
And no, mate, I highly doubt Val breaks out Top Gun with any regularity these days to impress his latest crop of prospective girlfriends!
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
Once was enough for me.
BTW, I agree with your assessment of Kelly McGillis. I always thought she looked like his older cousin Harriet twice removed.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Poor Kelly, she really did age before her time. She and Kathleen Turner look a bit like sisters now.