we're gonna have a good time

-

I don't know how accurate this is, but my Media Theory teacher told us last week (a fellow grad student talked about this movie for his presentation) that Top Gun was the first movie to really play entire songs like this opening bit with "Danger Zone" and the aircraft carrier montage. Seems not quite right, since the song trails off just like many a movie song. They do keep coming back to it, though.

Yes, to cap off the 80s action movie month, I'm going to enjoy me some Top Gun. Simpson and Bruckheimer before they got too big.

It's day one, so I'll let the movie just play for a bit. Haven't watched this movie in a long time.

One immediate response: it's remarkable how little the film is explaining about what's going on. We're just there in the air with these pilots with their lingo (though the film, apparently, misuses "bogey") and their call signs.

Since it's day one, I'm also looking at the box office, figuring out what my movie context for this was. I'm in the fifth grade when this movie came out. And, there weren't a lot of movies in first run theaters I was probably seeing that month, May 1986. Top Gun was # 1 it's opening weekend. We surely saw it that weekend. Short Circuit was #2, but I didn't see that in the theater. Don't recognize the titles for #3 or #4--Sweet Liberty and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, respectively. Fire with Fire, #5--I'd see that on video at some point. The Money Pit was #6. Pretty sure I saw that in the theater, but that was probably early in its run and this was it's 8th weekend. Same goes for Police Academy 3: Back in Training, # 7 in its 9th weekend. No Retreat, No Surrender, #8 in its second weekend--I would see that later on cable or video. Critters at #9 - video. Blue City at #10 and Wise Guys at #11--don't think I've ever seen either one.

Gotta interrupt this box office business to point out, this movie might be where I learned that giving someone the bird was called giving someone the bird." Which, I don't think I have ever done while inverted, piloting a plane or otherwise. I did once grab my sister's middle finger when she gave me the bird and threatened to hold onto it until we got home. I think that may have happened in a movie theater, but I can't recall what movie we were seeing.

Pretty in Pink at #12 in its12th weekend--don't remember if I saw that in the theater. Gung Ho at #13 in its tenth weekend--that one I definitely saw in the theater, probably its opening weekend.

(And, I just got sidetracked looking at pages from the Los Angeles Times Calendar section for the Friday Top Gun came out. I was curious what movies were at the Academy that weekend. The Academy has been a second run theater since June 1984, and we went there often, but I cannot see that theater listed in the Calendar.)

And then, I'm just here, watching the movie.

(In the meantime, another Top Gun-related anecdote: we were playing pictionary one time, at the dining room table, and "Great Balls of Fire" is the thing to guess. Thing is--and I don't know if I've ever talked about this side of it with my family--at school we'd taken to singing that song, but because we were pre- or adolescent boys, and we thought it was so clever to change the lyrics to "my balls are on fire." We sang "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling" from time to time as well, sang it on the school bus once... but that was actually a few years later, I think. But, I digress from the punchline of the story. So, my sister is drawing; there's a ball, and it's on fire, and I know it's that song, and the words aren't coming to me, and then suddenly, epiphany. I blurt out, "Goodness gracious, my balls are on fire!" And, many laughs were had. And, I can't remember, but we better have gotten the point.)

It amuses me that this movie never really deals with the consequences of these dogfights with Russian MiGs. (Note: I'm not sure the movie ever actually says they're Russian.) I mean, an open fight like the one on my screen right now--that's potential for war... maybe.

Anyway, this bonus movie (only six days) ought to be fun.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

la fille que j'aimera sera comme bon vin

-
Image
Phil Connors doesn’t speak French. While it might be reasonable to assume Phil does learn to play piano beyond the two songs we hear him play since this is at the point he is actually trying to better himself and affect the world around him in a positive way, the French bit is much earlier. It also comes from a bit in Rubin’s original screenplay, not with Rita but with “Tess Harper—Jefferson County Poetry Society.” Basically, it’s a clear example of Phil doing the same thing he does with Nancy in the movie; he makes stuff up to get what he wants. This is only Day 10 . He hasn’t gotten to the depression that arguably makes him realize he’s an actual human being like everyone else around him… I just realized, this also means he’s probably lying when he says, “Small town people are more real, more down-to-earth.” Later, he might actually believe it. But, at this point, each line is just a move to win over Rita. Anyway, in the original screenplay, Phil meets Tess like he meets Mary in
Read more

i've seen it over a hundred times

-
Image
As I write this, it’s Day 2 for Phil Connors on the DVD and my daughters are in the kitchen making a cake to celebrate Day 100 for me... photo should be below. The movie Phil had seen over 100 times (or so he tells Laraine) was Heidi II . It’s a “family classic” according to the Alpine Theater’s marquee. But, as I’ve mentioned before, it doesn’t exist. Originally, the movie that Phil could see every day if he wanted to do so was It’s a Wonderful Life . Danny Rubin’s ego—and this is his suggestion, not mine—made him believe Groundhog Day “a timeless quality and had the potential to become a film that could work for audiences for a very long time.” So, he put another such film on the marquee. But, “even believing that Groundhog Day was a potential classic, [Rubin] never was thinking of comparing it to It’s a Wonderful Life “— (I’d say putting that title on the marquee was Rubin deliberately comparing the two, but maybe that’s just me.) . Rubin continues: “But the similarities bet
Read more

the wretch, concentred all in self

-
So, Rita thinks Phil’s defining characteristic is his egocentrism. At the point in the story that she quotes Sir Walter Scott, it’s Day 4 for Phil (See the previous entry for a list of Phil’s days) and I wouldn’t argue that he isn’t egocentric. He’s still a jerk, taking advantage of his situation for fun. He’s manipulated Nancy for sex, has gone out on his costumed date to see Heidi II with the woman in the French maid costume. He’s just figured out the whole lack-of-consequences side of things with the help of Ralph and Gus. And, he’s sitting around loading up on, well, probably every dessert the Tip Top Café offers. His focus at this point is very much himself. But, a closer look at the lines Rita quotes got me to thinking, is Phil the man unsung by minstrels because he’s too self-centered? What Rita quotes is some lines from Canto VI of Sir Walter Scott’s “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.” The larger poem involves some clans at war with one another, but this particular section invol
Read more