Magic hour. Planes, operators, wind and ‘Danger zone’ playing at full blast: this is how one of the most mythical films of the 80s begins. Accused of being fascist by some and cradled as an untouchable object by others, ‘Top Gun’ (‘Idols of the air’, as it was subtitled in Spain) was a bombshell that even today, adjusting for inflation, is the greatest success of Tom Cruise’s career. Seen in 2022, does he maintain the type or is the exaltation of his goodness a simple nostalgic exaggeration? Is it mythical in its own right or simply as an icon? Hop on the F-14s, because we’re going to feel the need. The need for speed.
I go flying, i come flying
In 1985, Tom Cruise was beginning to emerge: I had already worked with directors such as Francis Ford Coppola on ‘Rebels’ or Ridley Scott on ‘Legend’, but nothing was guaranteed yet: although ‘Risky business’ was a box office hit, Scott’s fantasy film hit a slap Tom he needed a success to redirect his career and not be a flower of a day. And then came ‘Top Gun’.
‘Top Gun’ is Tom Cruise. In fact, if he agreed to star in it, it was because, after reading the script that Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson had in mind, they allowed him to give notes on it… And get on the planes that her character had to fly. It may have been more than 35 years, but Tom Cruise will always be Tom Cruise. What is not known is that ‘Top Gun’ could have been very different: Tony Scott was convinced to do a dark movie about the secret world of aviators and it was the producers who told him what kind of film they were really looking for.
And while Scott’s approach to the film would have been more interesting, ‘Top Gun’ works. Yes, of course it works: ‘Top Gun’ are airplanes, shots, sex, statuesque bodies, motorcycle trips and magic hour, a fantastic house of cards that lacks a structure but that is tremendously beautiful to see. Now, the importance of what happens is more iconographic than real, and it becomes really important once we see ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. The characters of ‘Top Gun’, beyond its protagonist, they are simple, flat, mere comparsas of the protagonist and capers in the air.
to play volleyball
It is clear that ‘Top Gun’, view like an amusement park, still works today. Maybe not as much as in the old days, when recruiting booths were set up at the exit of the cinema to capture confused youngsters wishing they were the new Mavericks, but it works. And is that the movie never shows who the enemies are, succeeding in not putting a face on them, but it does make it clear from the first minute who the heroes are: the United States fleet. Well of course.
Something that not even the most fans doubt is that the love relationship between Cruise and McGillis does not work, the chemistry is totally absent and the sex scene, which was shot several months after the end of filming, has a lack of libido that many believed reinforced the supposed homoerotic context of the film that Quentin Tarantino defended in that scene of ‘Sleep with me’. Context that many have taken for granted as something that the director himself intended but that does not stand up to serious analysis, even though the volleyball game could perfectly be a softcore gay erotic scene.
Although the history of ‘Top Gun’ and its characters do not give for further analysis (they are simple archetypes without layers of depth), the portentous thing about it is that Tony Scott gets all the juice out of him featuring daring camera shots, real-air action including impossible turns, and stunning photography. ‘Top Gun’ is not a deep movie, but she is the best version of herself What could it be.
take my breath away
Let’s be honest: ‘Top Gun’, to this day, more than a movie is a museum icon, a mythical work that you do not need to see to recognize instantly. It is predictable, the bad moments are embarrassing, it is too patriotic and it is simpler than the mechanism of a jug, but has managed to transcend in the history of cinema as many better works have not been able to. If we now see an action scene shot in magic hour, it is impossible not to think of Tony Scott.
‘Top Gun’ does not think about its consequences, becoming the definitive popcorn movie and in the perfect definition of the classic blockbuster, which many wanted to surpass but few could match. It does not allow any lesson to be drawn from it, but neither does it pretend to: it is a work to the greater glory of a United States increasingly ironic with themselves that breathed patriotism against faceless enemies. And all this with rhythm.
Something that many do not remember from ‘Top Gun’ is the constant repetition of ‘Take my breath away’, from Berlin, an impenetrable song that won the Oscar and the Golden Globe and that plays continuously during the 105 minutes of the footage. It helps that much of the film feels more like a music video than a theatrical release, though this is by no means a demerit: the language of the video clip taken to the cinema can also be an art, and Tony Scott dominated it. Wow, if he did.
In short
‘Top Gun’ is an absolutely empty movie, but at the same time she is the best possible version of herself. Tony Scott left for posterity one of the definitive blockbusters, with its own personality and that, although it has been surpassed by his sequel, it is still a remarkable action film, watermarks in the air, impossible friendshipspoorly managed love affairs and the need for speed.