But what we should remember is the moment of terror that precedes it. When we think of the end of "Top Gun" we might recall the blithe violence and "Team America"-esque spirit with which Mav giddily shoots those Russian MiGs into oblivion. Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.Īnd at the end of the film, it is Mav who has the onset of blurry vision and terror. Mav gamely helps steer the pilot, barely, back to the aircraft carrier but for the film, what's at stake has been set: How does a man deal with his fear? His vision blurs, his face caked with sweat brought on by crippling fear. The very first scene of the film is a pilot who is about to disintegrate into an abyss of terror. "Top Gun" is about Goose and Mav singing " Great Balls of Fire!" Or Mav gunning his motorcycle! Or Mav giving an upside-down bird to the Russian pilot!īut then you don't remember that "Top Gun" begins and ends with a panic attack.
Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise on the set of "Top Gun," directed by Tony Scott (Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Image) "Top Gun" explores something much larger and more timely for today: the complex sensitivities of men.
As millions get excited to see the sequel and revel in watching Mav "kick some ass!" it's instructive to see that the original is not about the macho mystique, and nor is it a sly, reductive Easter egg about sexual repression. It lures you in with its soaring jets and preening male fighter jocks, but the real story is one about male vulnerability. What the critique overlooked though, and what many who have not seen the original in many years have forgotten, is that the film is a Trojan Horse. And then last May, for the 35th anniversary of the movie, Vulture got in on the riddle and asked Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of the film, about the conjecture. So prevalent was this idea that in 2016 Yahoo! News did an article on it and pressed Jack Epps Jr., a co-writer on the film, whether it was true.
Naked gay men making out movie#
When the film came out in 1986, New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael had labeled it a "shiny homoerotic commercial." And then Quentin Tarantino acting in the1994 indie "Sleep With Me" had a whole riff on the supposed gay subtext of the movie and how it was about Mav's "struggle with his own homosexuality."
Others in the culture had floated this notion. RELATED: The frustrations of "Stranger Things" and Gen X's '80s nostalgia habit
The ode to "F Yeah!" masculinity in "Top Gun" was so loud and fever-pitched, that armchair Gen X cultural critics could not resist the urge to drown it out with a half in jest, half serious counter melody that cried out, "Don't you see! They're all just gay!" Part of this theory's ubiquity came out of a need to release the massive bear hug with which "Top Gun" had wrapped around pop culture. "See how the camera lingers on the glistening abs and tight jeans of Tom Cruise! It's all about the unspoken homoerotic!" The theory was based on two pillars: a half naked Iceman (Val Kilmer) getting very close to a half naked Maverick (Tom Cruise) during the locker room scenes to bitingly decry that he's "dangerous." And, of course, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, those volleyball scenes. In the late '90s or early aughts, if the movie "Top Gun" came up, someone would be bursting with newfound zeal to educate you on what the film was really about – and that was, why of course – repressed homosexuality. With the long-awaited "Top Gun" sequel hitting theaters in what might be the most anticipated blockbuster in years, it's worth revisiting an earlier critique of the original that's still prevalent today.