It’s a new year and the dawn of a new era in American history, so I decided to watch Top Gun (1986), the spawning point for modern masculinity and John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. Before I saw this movie, I kind of got McCain’s whole “maverick” thing… I thought, ‘OK, that’s an interesting, if random kind of characterization!’ But now I understand. I understand EVERYTHING. Top Gun had tentacles that stretched beyond time and space to permeate American society 20 years on.
Fuck Judd Apatow and the Will Ferrell Frat Pack, Top Gun did it all and they’re just dancing on its grave! Even the music is gendered: the two huge songs are Danger Zone and Take My Breath Away, which play during dudely badass and softly feminine points in the film, respectively. Did you know that Take My Breath Away was written for Top Gun? I didn’t! Holy shit!
I was born in a post-Top Gun world; its reality is my reality. Maverick’s story is my story. Ours is a generation of misunderstood rebels, repeating over and over the narrative that Top Gun so rigidly traces. What’s this movie about? I think you already know.
And now Tom Cruise is a Scientologist. Need I continue?
–Vy
Cinerarium 