Until about ten minutes ago I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about today. I didn’t want to do another My Collection, as I’ve done a bunch recently, and I don’t really want this blog to turn into me just ranting about music. It should be me just ranting. I didn’t have anything specific to rant about, so putting together a Rambling would have been a slog, and I’m not up for that right now. I got to thinking, what about an In Defence of? It couldn’t be on either of the two movies I had in mind when I came up with the category, as it’s been to long since I’ve seen them. Don’t worry, I’ll watch them soon and then post about it, but I didn’t want to do that right now. So, what can I defend? Well, I’ve seen Top Gun more than any other movie. Even Star Wars: Episode IV. It’s close, but clear. Just for shits and giggles I looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes. 53% – rotten. Really? I thought it was going to be a little low, but 53%? U.S. Navy recruitment went up something like 30% after that movie came out!

Let’s do this.

First of all, it has one of the greatest opening sequences of all time. I’m watching it on YouTube right freaking now. The silence, the Moroder beat, the anthem… Simple titles, credits, it all somehow adds a bit of plausibility to an unrealistic movie. I know Cinema Sins would sin the forced reading at the beginning, but I think it’s a little like the opening crawl from the Star Wars movies. When that music starts to build, and the title hits the screen, I’m hooked. Once I hear Kenny Loggins, I’m already strapped in and ready to fly. Even watching this opening sequence evokes such a visceral response from me, I’m a little in awe of it.

I am well aware of the movie’s flaws, of which there are many. It’s a Bruckheimer special to be sure, but it meets my one and only criterium for a good movie in spades: It is massively entertaining. It is fun. It’s Tom Cruise at his peak. He is never more likeable than he is here. Even if he does only come up to Tim Robbins’ nipples. When Kelly McGillis comes back to him in the end, with the Righteous Brothers in the background, I’m fist-pumping the fuck out of that shit.

I think most people get their nose out of joint when they take this movie as something it isn’t. I have an interview with Tony Scott in which he discusses the approach he wanted to take. He was struggling with how to present the material; as aerial combat and modern military pilots, in their true forms, don’t necessarily lend themselves well to a Hollywood movie. He ended up saying something that changed the way I view the film: It’s sports. That’s how he described it. It’s competition where there isn’t any. It’s emotion where there can’t be any. It’s breaking the rules where that can’t happen. I mean, come on, the volleyball scene? That’s more unintentional homoerotic comedy gold than should be in one movie. Carrie Fisher said of the Star Wars dialogue that it was stuff “you couldn’t say in real life.” The same could be said for Top Gun. As in, who talks like this?

And it’s funny. Even without the volleyball scene, or the club scene where they first meet Charlie, this is a one liner lover’s movie. Most of the best come from my man Anthony Edwards, but a few other actors are let in on the action too. This is not a serious movie. No matter what the look on Val Kilmer’s face says. This movie is an emotional ride. It’s funny, exciting, sad, frustrating: it gives you the full range of emotions, is packed with some great actions sequences (even if they reuse that same goddamn missle shot umpteen times) and somehow manages to bring it all home in the end. The music is pure 80’s and fantastic. Kenny Loggins was made to write movie music. Yes it’s a sappy ending. The guy gets the bad guy, gets the dream job, gets the girl. Guess what, I like that. I want to be happy at the end of a movie, not bummed out. To me this movie is a perfect example of movie critics missing the point. We need to have movies that are fun. That’s a big reason why Guardians of the Galaxy did so well. I want more movies to be like this. Well made and fun. Not all of them, the world still needs arthouse movies, it needs Schindler’s List, it needs American Psycho.

Top Gun? Well, I’m always up for watching it again…