Posted on 10/12/2026 11:10:26 AM PDT by Rummyfan
The Reagan Revolution didn't just usher in a wave of prosperity, but also wholesome patriotism. Every proper child of the 1980s has a wisp of nostalgia for the times. Reagan was an actor, and Hollywood wasn't so uptight about politics. Producers then shoveled cash into content that lionized the military, pleased the White House, and made America's blood pump. Veterans like Clint Eastwood and Chuck Norris practically reinvented the patriotic chic genre that died off after the 1960s, when Hollywood grew tired of making World War II movies and hunting commies.
One of my early memories was soaking in this sublime nationalistic deluge on various naval installations, when Reagan's 600-ship Navy filled the piers of American ports. The earliest was the USS Enterprise steaming proudly into port in San Francisco Bay, back when Alameda Naval Air Station was bulging at the seams with mighty fleet carriers and naval strike jets. And I remember running around the Enterprise's war room, with the officers' mess tables still above my eyeline, not long after they unjammed the carrier from the San Francisco silt.
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“Mav’s in trouble… he’s in a flat spin… he’s heading to sea”
Dang jet wash...
Haven’t seen it to this day. And I worked on figbters.
Poor Goose.
It’s got Tom Cruise, I realize, but it’s not bad.
Actually, it’s better than not bad. Every time it comes on, I watch it. I think it was the first time I saw Val Kilmer. He did a great job, I thought.
This was more of a love story than a military movie- the second one was actually better, patriotically speaking.
It is a decent movie. Second one much better. Fun to watch for nostalgia. I give it 3 1/2 beers out of a six pack.
Jet engines up close sell.
So cool. You can feel the testosterone.
Tom Cruise being a putz was reason number 1 for my indifference. Number 2 was that I was working the flightline at a pilot training base. In my best Gary Cole voice: “Yeah...if you could not sit on the tarmac in the mid-day Florida heat, playing with the radar without cooling air, that’d be great.” Fighter pilots just didn’t hold that much mystique for me.
In big pieces, “Top Gun” is the same movie as “An Officer And A Gentleman.”
Boy with a chip on his shoulder joins the Navy to be a fighter pilot.
Boy has problems with authority.
Boy gets girl.
Boy loses girl.
Boy’s best friend dies.
Boy gets girl back.
And they all live happily ever after ... except the one who died.
The single biggest difference is TG is AFTER flight school. AOAAG is BEFORE.
Saw it with a girl I thought might be ‘the one.’ She loved it. I thought it was ‘meh.’ She thought Tom Cruise was sexy. I thought he was kinda... un-straight?
Shortly thereafter I saw the real her and it still is linked to her personality in an intensely negative way.
So, it’s a thumbs down from me.
I find the ending touching when Rambo cries and discusses coming home from Vietnam and being spat on and called a baby killer. It was, IMHO, Stallone's way of telling the left that they could have been anti-war without being so anti-soldier, and that the left played a major role in Vietnam vets having PTSD and having trouble fitting back into society.
Agreed.
Your right!
Exact same story
They never hunted commies. They employed them in mass.
Well, Reagan was also the Governor of California for eight years, elected in 1966 and re-elected in 1970.
The first time I ever saw California was in April of 1972, half way through Reagan’s second term. A wonderful, magical place back in those days.
Tom Cruise got interested in aviation and became a pilot after making his first “Top Gun” movie. He owns a P-51 Mustang amongst other planes; he is shown flying the P-51 with his girlfriend in “Top Gun/Maverick.”
I had a project at Ft. Hood.
We would get lunch and eat and watch the Warthogs take off.
Short runway, they would tilt and lift when they got to where we would sit, maybe 100’ away
I really enjoyed that. Still have my name badge. I remember all of the Leatherman multi-tools in the pawn shops. Issued to the soldiers and they sold them to buy beer. We were there when they integrated women into the army. The men were carrying full backpacks, the women carried fanny packs. Within a couple of weeks of smirks, all the men were carrying fanny packs LOL. Painting barrack exteriors the women sat in the men’s laps on the stairs.
San Francisco Bay was still a military area when I was there in the mid 80’s.
San Francisco was still partially a great American city.
The signs of rot had started , but hadn’t consumed everything yet.
This is a “guys’ movie.” That’s rare today. The girls were cute and objectified at the bar. Sex was in the air. Guys antagonized one another as they developed a hierarchy. The bad jets wore black.
I was fine with it. I liked the music. The flying was fun, even if only partially realistic.
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