‘top Gun’ Cashes in on Tom Cruise as a ‘maverick’ Pilot - 1986 review
(Originally published by the Daily News on May 16, 1986. This story was written by Kathleen Carroll.) #NewlyMatureMaverick #SovietWarMachine #SovietJetBreathing #WildBlueYonder #UneventfulSearchAndSightMission #BadlyShakenPilot #AmericanFighter #AmericanFighterJets #MaverickSRomance #GutsyAmericanFighter If you don't like my channel, please skip my channel. Thanks very much! ►►► Source: ****** Some video random from our channel may you like: ►Passengers Stranded As Heritage Nilgiris Mountain Railway Train Stops Due To Snag : ****** ►IMF Chief Says Greece Plan 'Good Distance Away' Amid Leaks Row : ****** ►1 In 3 Syrian Children Know Nothing But War: UNICEF : ****** ►Brazil Lawmakers Authorize Preesident Dilma Rousseff Impeachment To Go Ahead : ****** ►Malta Government Survives 'Panama Papers' No Confidence Vote : ****** ►3 Alleged Jaish Members Sent To 10 Days Police Custody By Court : ****** ►India Should Talk To Pak From Position Of 'Strength': Congress : ****** ►Donald Trump Would Need To Sway Broader Group Of Voters In November : ****** ►Sonia Gandhi Pays Homage To Dr BR Ambedkar : ****** ►Lalu Prasad, Jagannath Mishra Appear In Court In Fodder Scam Case : ******
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(Originally published by the Daily News on May 16, 1986. This story was written by Kathleen Carroll.)
The jet fumes glow in the dawn’s early light as F-14 Tomcats roar into the wild blue yonder from an aircraft carrier based in the Indian Ocean. Lt. Pete Mitchell, a.k. Maverick, is prepared for an uneventful search-and-sight mission when a Soviet Mig-28 swoops down on the American fighter jets.
With the Soviet jet breathing down his tail, Cougar, the squadron’s leading pilot, starts to sweat bullets. But not Maverick. Prodded by Goose, who’s not only his best chum but his backseat radar intercept officer, he zooms in close enough to get a great shot of the Soviet war machine with his Polaroid camera.
Disobey an order to land, he goes after Cougar and guides the badly shaken pilot to a safe landing.
Maverick’s impulsive act of courage earns him a slot at Top Gun, a Navy training school that is designed to separate the real men from the fly boys. Does Maverick have enough of the right stuff of compete with “the best of the best” at Top Gun? Will Maverick’s romance with Charlie, his curvaceous astrophysics instructor, cause him to crash-land before graduation?
The answers to these questions should be obvious. “Top Gun” is a carefully calculated reshoot of all those buoyantly patriotic war movies which celebrated the often foolish heroics of gutsy American fighter pilots. If this movie had been made 40 years ago, Maverick would probably have been played by John Wayne or, even, Ronald Reagan.
Instead Tom Cruise, a tenderfoot, boyishly appealing actor with a winning Ipana smile, gets to do the honors.
New York Daily News published this on May 16, 1986.
Kelly McGillis and Tom Cruise are shown in a promotional image for the 1986 film, "Top Gun."
(Anonymous/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Cruise is adorable, but he hardly seems old enough to qualify for the Eagle Scouts. With his leading lady, the serenely beautiful Kelly McGillis, Cruise projects fresh-scrubbed innocence instead of *** desire and, as a result, their whole relationship seems more like a kid brother and big sister act.
So much *** or dramatic tension: “Top Gun” is terribly monotonous. Anthony Edwards gooses things up a bit as Goose, the good natured best buddy. But the rest of the characters are so vaguely defined it’s impossible to care about their fate — not even when they engage in an actual battle with Soviet Migs.
The movie blithely ignores the incident which appears to be the opening round of World War III and a newly mature Maverick goes back to Top Gun for a final clinch with you-know-who.
The flight sequences in “Top Gun” may arouse aerial buffs. Still, this movie approaches its subject in such juvenile, superficial way that it’s clear the producers were merely in a hurry to cash in on Hollywood’s new wave of Rambo-style patriotism.
