Top Gun is a 1986 production from Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films. The movie is directed by Tony Scott with a script from Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. The main star is Tom Cruise, who shines alongside the likes of Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards and Tom Skerritt. The film scores a 6.9/10 on IMDb but received a rather low Metascore of 50.
The Story
This movie is probably great for fighter pilots fanatics but not for me. Around 2/3 of the movie is all about flying and besides that, not much happens. He is trying to get a girl who doesn’t want to date him because he is one of her students but quickly decides otherwise. Other than that there is the rivalry between Maverick and Iceman but in the actual fighter pilot scenes that rivalry is never expressed. Other than some big talk before and after the flights and a voice-over telling us the score on the leaderboard, not much happens between the two.
Ironically, the story finally becomes interesting when Goose dies. This tragic moment came after the first tense scene in the whole movie when their jet stalled mid-air. This event seemed to catalyze more interesting events. The relationship between Charlie and Maverick started wavering as well as Maverick’s previously unwavering confidence. This created an interesting story, at last, completed with an actual tense dogfight.
The Characters
In my opinion is Goose the best character in this movie. He has a nice personality and is often the reason a scene works out. Both Maverick and Iceman were way too macho to be good characters for me, although Maverick’s character does become a bit more interesting after Goose dies. Charlie was extremely hard to follow a character for me. She talks about their relationship and her unwillingness because of the student-teacher dynamic but she seemed to kinda drop all that because Maverick is just too handsome or something.
The Production
I have to say, for a 1986 production, this is some fine work. They managed to capture the fighter pilot scenes quite well with some good aerial footage alongside the inside of the cockpit view. I have to say that they could’ve lowered the amount of military jargon to make it more understandable. In a lot of the flight scenes, you hear them talking all sorts of numbers and directions and that’s hard to follow.