Top Gun (1986)

Followed by: Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

	Directed by: Tony Scott	COUNTRY USA GENRE Action/Drama/ Romance NORWEGIAN TITLE Top Gun RUNNING TIME 109 minutes
	Produced by: Don Simpson Jerry Bruckheimer
	Written by: Jim Cash Jack Epps Jr.

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
LT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell	Tom Cruise
Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood	Kelly McGillis
LT Tom "Iceman" Kazansky	Val Kilmer
LTJG Nick "Goose" Bradshaw	Anthony Edwards	½
CDR Mike "Viper" Metcalf	Tom Skerritt
LCDR Rick "Jester" Heatherly	Michael Ironside	-
LT Bill "Cougar" Cortell	John Stockwell	-
LTJG Ron "Slider" Kerner	Rick Rossovich	-
LTJG Sam "Merlin" Wells	Tim Robbins	-
Carole Bradshaw	Meg Ryan	½

Review

Whatever story the movie sells us is mostly steeped in melodrama, but luckily, it’s an emblematic, star-studded melodrama. Tom Cruise is the reason for the film’s success – his fresh face, killer smile and deft playing up for the camera made everyone enchanted, as he defined the 1980s brand of movie star. Along with the well-captured, yet mostly uneventful fighter-plane footage, Top Gun became a hit – although more for what it stood for than what it actually portrayed. If you strip it down and watch it out of the context of its success, this is a fairly humdrum tale of mushy love and soggy trauma. And the romance, which director Tony Scott seems to think is so essential to the effect, has no spark, no authenticity. It’s like watching a teacher and a schoolboy play-acting. There's no denying the payoff of Maverick's final escapades with the sticks, however. When he lands on the aircraft carrier and hugs Iceman (Val Kilmer), the film reaches some sort of zenith in male bonding.