My first experience of Top Gun – released 25 years ago on May 16, 1986 –was watching it on video with friends.
It was, admittedly, a pirate video with a grainy, shaky picture and Chinese subtitles. Well, it was the 1980s, when Maltese cinemas had become a bit grotty, to put it mildly, and in the then still-burgeoning home video market, original videos where quite hard to come by.
Of course, as videos became more readily available and we experienced the move to DVD I did revisit the film over the years and I watched it yet again recently to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its release to assess whether the 1986 box office champion has withstood the test of time.
Top Gun was the film to really launch Tom Cruise as a film superstar. His portrayal of Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell was the template on which he would successfully build many of his onscreen personas.
Maverick is a cocky, arrogant navy pilot who is sent to Miramar Naval Air Station for advanced training.
While aiming to be named ‘Top Gun’ of his class, he also romances civilian instructor Charlotte Blackwood (Kelly McGillis). Constantly battling the spirit of his heroic dead fighter pilot father, Maverick’s confidence is shaken even further when his best friend dies in combat.
The attraction of the film’s star (and his pilot uniform, aviator shades and, of course, that megawatt smile) together with the subject matter – so appealing to patriotic teens and young adults – contributed to the film’s success.
Add to that its dizzying aerial fight scenes and stunt work, which provided high levels of excitement, the romance provided by the passionate affair between Maverick and Blackwood, and the tender marriage between Maverick’s best friend Goose (a pre-ER Anthony Edwards) and his wife Carol (Meg Ryan, also at the beginning of her career), and you have a recipe for a blockbuster.
This popularity made Top Gun the top-grossing film of 1986, raking in an astonishing – for its time – $354 million. It was reported at the time that the number of people who enlisted in the US Navy wanting to be pilots went up considerably, thanks in no small part to director Tony Scott, who milked every possibility out of this story of boys playing with their very expensive, shiny and dangerous toys.
The public’s love for the film was not necessarily a reflection of critics’ assessments – the general consensus being that while in the action stakes Top Gun definitely soars, once things get back on the ground quality levels really drop.
The New York Times stated that “as directed by Tony Scott, with the technical assistance of a couple of former Navy pilots, the snappily edited sequences of battle and mock battle sweep us in and out of the cockpit.
“You can’t always be sure exactly what’s going on, but it’s exciting anyhow. The excitement is switched off on landing. Once Top Gun gets back to earth, the master of the skies is as clunky as a big land-bound bird.”
So, does it hold up all these years later? Objectively, ‘no’ is the answer to that. The hackneyed script offered nothing original in terms of plot; the characters are pretty two-dimensional and the relationships somewhat clichéd.
Also with higher budgets and the leaps and bounds made by CGI, recent films boast much better and tighter action, while today’s audiences are a tad more sophisticated and not as steeped in romantic nostalgia as those of my ilk, so they may dismiss it as inferior tosh.
Yet it remains a cult classic and a firm favourite among 40-somethings. For all its flaws, Top Gun is a film peppered with memorable moments. It is more than just the scenes of the protagonists flying their F14 Tomcats.
Remember the beach volleyball scene oozing so much sex appeal, Maverick on his motorbike racing a fighter jet that’s taking off against an impossibly beautiful sunset, Goose and Maverick serenading Charlotte with their rendition of The Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling, or Maverick and Iceman’s (Val Kilmer) too-smouldering looks at one another as their rivalry gets hotter?
Top Gun also boasts one of the best film soundtracks ever with its popular rock ballad Take My Breath Away, winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Song, heading a track listing of excellent songs so inexorably linked to the film, together with Harold Faltermeyer’s ambient score.
If you feel the need... the need for speed, Top Gun is the best place to find it.