What a film! The navy. The fighter pilots. The aerial combatting. The macho nature. The male bonding and comradery. The gay subtext!! Jezz, it was all throughout the film. Especially in the first twenty minutes when it was full of lines like "I think I got a hard on." "Don't tease me." It was literally chocca block full of talk about "johnsons", "hard ons" and various other metaphors for male genitalia and sex. It also doesn't help the film the film trying to look macho by having the guys constantly dripping with sweat, spending half the time topless, or just standing around in their pants/towel and playing volleyball to the tune of "Playing With the Boys". PLUS the fact there's only, really, one female character, whose name is Charlie (Kerry McGillis) (could be easily played by a man) and that she's not really in it that much, and that the relationship with her and Maverick (Tom Cruise) seems to play second fiddle to the relationships playing out with the guys in the Navy.
Don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with having homosexual tones in a film, I'm not a prude or anything, but I'm not completely sure that the filmmakers realisd they were making the film that way. It seems like they were aiming for macho buddy film, but instead played it up so much that they got the opposite. Well, that's my theory. And obviously, it's no suprise to anyone that the film has these tones, I just thought I'd give my view on it.
As for the other aspects of the film, well, actually I found it kind of hard to overlook the naff homo-erotic-ness of the whole thing, which actually made the film hilarious. I couldn't take it that seriously. And after a while when (Spoiler Alert) Goose dies and the film becomes more dramatic I actually found myself getting a bit bored. Maybe I don't get the film as it seems very directed towards men.
The acting is adequate but nothing amazing, Cruise delivers as usual, occasionally giving his trademark fist clenches. I do think this is a film that needs to be seen, but I don't really know how well it has stood the test of time. Some people I know love it, but they are a guys. So watch it, as at least you can have a good laugh, or, ladies, if you are so inclined, have a good goggle at a young, toned Mr Cruise. Also check out Hot Shots as well as it does a good mocking of the film, may even be better.
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