Last week, film director Tony Scott announced his intentions to make a follow up to his 1986 smash hit Top Gun. According to reports, Scott plans to reinvent the story, bringing it up to date by focusing his crosshairs on a new kind of aerial warfare – the type that has pilots controlling aircraft remotely.
My articulate and erudite response to this news is: bleuch. Don't get me wrong - I did enjoy the first film (despite being nicknamed Maverick during my formative years because my unplucked eyebrows curiously matched those of Tom Cruise), but the idea of wasting two hours of my life watching another load of wise cracking, back slapping, American patriotic propaganda in the face of all the current news makes me want to hurl.
I understand that there is huge entertainment value in exploiting heightened states of human emotion, which means that the new Top Gun film will be a resounding commercial success, but I wish Hollywood would stick to legal dramas and romantic comedies until its ready to make a film that is truly representative of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. To me, whittling away the facts and distorting the reality of war so we can take a vicarious joyride that glorifies conflict, is not only saddening, but also irresponsible. Maverick, out.
What do you think? Leave us a comment below.
By: Kate McAuley