{"id":6898,"date":"2026-05-18T22:34:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/?p=6898"},"modified":"2026-05-18T22:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:43:11","slug":"top-gun-by-tony-scott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/2026\/05\/18\/top-gun-by-tony-scott\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Gun<\/em> by Tony Scott"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Gun<\/em> has been hammered by critics and keeps being hammered, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. And mind, there\u2019s no nostalgia involved on my part\u2014I\u2019ve never seen the movie before, and for virtually everything native to the 1980s, I like to quote a dear colleague of mine replying to some of her students, \u201cYou only think the 1980s were cool because you didn\u2019t have to live through them.\u201d Thus, I also find most of the soundtrack at least mildly repellent, except, of course, \u201cGreat Balls of Fire.\u201d Which, incidentally, is also a perfect fit, as the movie is basically about oversized balls being on fire for most of its running time.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to lament about the screenplay, particularly its veritable collection of dialogue lines unsalvageable by any<\/em> cast. But otherwise, I admire its gutsiness to break the mold\u2014its dramatic development feels wonky, there\u2019s no antagonist to speak of, there\u2019s no early scene that signals what must be achieved for the movie to be over, or its peculiar pacing.<\/p>\n

And you cannot even call it an action movie! Notwithstanding its dialogue hackwork, the movie is actually character-driven throughout, even if those characters are not exactly marking new Shakespearean depths. Also, sadly, or maybe even on purpose, the Cruise\/McGillis pairing fails to sparkle. What does sparkle, however, and iconically so, is the Kilmer\/Cruise pairing, and in its wake the general buddyness of it all. Noo Saro-Wiwa, in her excellent Guardian<\/em> review, distinctly nails it<\/a>: \u201cMasculinity, Top Gun<\/em> reminds us, is a horseshoe spectrum in which the gay and hyper-straight are not really so far apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, the cinematography is outstanding, on the ground and in the air. The aerial combat scenes\u2014to great effect\u2014leave you puzzled at times, but they do so on purpose when, and only when, the pilots themselves lose their bearings. Great stuff.<\/p>\n

In the closing credits, one of the real F-14 aircrew involved in making the movie has the call sign \u201cRabbi,” which instantly reminded me of the aircraft carrier\u2019s flight deck in Jim Abrahams\u2019s 1991 spoof Hot Shots!<\/em>, with its parking meters for the jets, the matador, and the high-fiving pilots in Hasidic garb.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Top Gun<\/em><\/a> by Tony Scott, 1986.
\nWatched at the Atelier theater on May 17, 2026, in its original language.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ud83c\udfac Yep, just saw this movie for the first time.<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-archive","h-entry","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6898"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6953,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6898\/revisions\/6953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betweendrafts.com\/justdrafts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}