The 1986 film Top Gun, stars the 80's man himself: Mr. Tom Cruise. Joining alongside Cruise's flight training is Val Kilmer as The "Ice" Man and Anthony Edwards as "Goose." Basically, the film is an over-amped version of an earnest American symbol of pride and masculinity. I was watching the film, thinking to myself how weird it was to see the cinematic ideas of what flight school is and what flight school should be. My father was in the Air force and I questioned him on the naturalism of this movie--his reaction was completely in agreement with mine...it was just another blockbuster formula. The idea of going through training, flying, losing a friend (goose), gaining the respect of a competitive comrade (ice) and on top of all that--Cruise manages to find a beautiful woman to fall in love with. The cohesive elements of the film just don't make sense. But it's fun to watch, knowing that the glue that held this film together in Cruise's hay-day has now lost it's "stickiness" because he has been jumping on to many couches.
Although, I do have to say there are some pretty memorable shots in terms of the utilization of special effects with the fighter jet scenes and the nostalgic feature of "American Pride." I mean, I can't really say sappy love scenes and unconventional male bonding over a little game of volleyball are really my thing; but the sound-track is a different story.
"Take My Breath Away"
1 comment:
You forgot to mention that not only do they play volleyball but they get all hot and sweaty playing volleyball but no sand ever sticks to them despite all the desperate diving movies they do. Must be the soap that the military uses.
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