Whether you love it or just really, really like it, the movie Top Gun has survived as an iconic pop-culture sensation for 30 years. The highest grossing film of 1986 and definitive summer blockbuster captured the zeitgeist of the era through a high-octane mash-up of Cold-War fueled, Reagan-era fighter jets and all the definitive hallmarks of a late-80s classic: infinite cheesy quotes, a highly-synthesized soundtrack, and multiple intense hard-work montages.
Like a time capsule caught on VHS, the movie permanently time-stamped the hottest trends of those years in the minds of the public — Aviator sunglasses, Val Kilmer’s bleached Flattop — but importantly, the movie also introduced millions of viewers to the U.S. Navy and carrier aviation. Through the eyes of the equal-parts handsome and rebellious pilot, Lieutenant Pete Mitchell (call sign “Maverick”) the movie took viewers into a fighter cockpit in the most realistic flying scenes that had ever been produced and awoke many young men and women to the awesomeness of “flying Mach 2 with your hair on fire.”
As well, Top Gun was a ground-breaking, inside look at the F-14 Tomcat and the Navy fighter pilot community, perfectly depicting a culture that viewed itself as indestructible, undefeatable, and unmatched either in a dogfight or at the Officer’s Club Bar. An incredible recruiting tool over the past three decades, the film remains a cultural touchstone inside and outside of naval aviation.
I'm sure Jason is planning a 30th Anniversary viewing party.
I got really, really sick of that "take my breath away" song in the late 1980s. Thankfully haven't heard it in a long time.
Posted by: Hmmm | 05/01/2016 at 07:04 AM
Re: "Take my breath away," HOOT! Worst song ever by Berlin but I guess you can't knock success...
Was assigned Fleet Intelligence Training Center, Pacific, at NTC during the filming; remember the day the film crew arrived to film part of the spat/chase sequence between the Cruise and McGillis. Can't count the number of times the crew ran the Porsche and motorcycle past our building, up the hill and out the gate, turning left onto Rosecrans. Not bad for an argument that supposedly started at Miramar...
Posted by: Mark Morgan | 05/02/2016 at 07:18 AM