For posters like this guy who are bagging on the movie, I feel it’s important to describe the importance of the original Top Gun movie to this country. And apologize for the novel, but I’d like to share a personal story to demonstrate it.
I saw the original Top Gun with my dad, who was an Air Force pilot for twenty years. It was one of the few movies I ever saw with him, and it was also the last.
When that movie came out, it was legendary for several reasons. The fighter scenes at the time were very advanced Hollywood cinema, and it was game-changing from that perspective.
But more importantly, the country had gone through the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam war, the Iran hostage crisis, the 70’s inflation surge, and the country was still pretty negative about the military.
That movie recaptured American pride. My dad enjoyed the movie and walked out happier than I’d seen him in a awhile. I found out a long time later that he had ejected from his fighter jet during the Korean war and broken his back on the canopy, just like Goose died in the movie. He was in traction for a year in Japan. He never said a word about it after the movie. Like many of the greatest generation, he just quietly kept it to himself.
The other incredibly important impact of that movie was that it was cool again to be associated with the military. My dad came home from Vietnam being spit on and yelled at by his country. After Top Gun, our military folks received a lot more respect. I actually had two close friends I worked with who were engineers who literally quit right after the movie came out and joined the military as fighter pilots.
That movie had a major impact, and this one was a nice way for all of us to remember it all.