Top Gun (Blu-ray)

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After establishing who the hero and the bad guy (sort of) are, the formula then calls for a love interest for our rebellious hero. This damsel comes in the form of a civilian contractor working at the base evaluating the pilots, and her name is Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood (Kelly McGillis). An interesting fact to note is that the Navy nixed the initial script idea of the female lead being an enlisted officer, as it does not encourage fraternizing among officers. My first reaction to McGillis was, wow, an older woman! Even though only five years separate their ages, you have to admit that next to Cruise's boyish good looks, McGillis comes across as someone who is more suited for a role as, let's say, the Admiral's wife than Tom Cruise's love interest.

"Sorry, Goose, but it's time to buzz the tower" --Tom Cruise

The story in "Top Gun" is as straightforward as a Sidewinder missile coming at you. There are no twists or turns, and the writers and director go out of their way to make sure the audience gets it. This is the kind of filmmaking that tries to cater to the lowest common denominator, or as Bruckheimer likes to put it, to mom and pop in Oklahoma. Maverick is the troubled but talented hot shot whose reckless nature not only puts himself at risk but also unnecessarily endangers others around him as well. As he goes through various trials and tribulations at Top Gun, he meets the girl of his dreams, and the self-confessed playboy falls in love for the first time (a collective awwwwwwww fills the room). By the time the final act of the movie rolls along, he is presented with the one chance to vindicate himself and to set things straight. Oh, and have no fear, in the end, our hero, naturally, gets the girl, too.

The storyline may be cheesy and predictable but the aerial footages of the F-14s dogfighting are genuinely breathtaking and exciting. With skillful editing and tight stunt coordination between director Tony Scott and the Navy pilots who actually flew the planes, never once did I get confused about the fast-paced on-screen action. You always know who is who by the distinctive markings on the pilots' helmets. It really helps that the actors are wearing breathing masks over their mouths, which enable the editors to insert any dialogue they want over the shots in postproduction. What this really means is that all the accumulated rolls of aerial footage may not have a decent story structure in the first place, but with clever editing and voice dubbing, anything is possible, as is clearly shown by the resulting film.

"You can be my wingman anytime!" --Val Kilmer

Sometimes, I tend to think of "Top Gun" as a rock-and-roll musical with fast jets rather than an action movie with great music. The movie was clearly written and constructed with rock music in mind. Scenes like the shameless pseudo hard-body show-off event on the beach volleyball court are only meant for one thing and one thing only, and that is to bring legions of women into the theaters to watch the movie. With Kenny Loggins' "Playing With The Boys" thumping in the background, it is funny to note that Goose, who is played by a rather scrawny Anthony Edwards, is the only person on the court with a shirt on. Everyone else, Cruise, Kilmer, and Rick Rossovich (Slider, Iceman's RIO) have their shirts off and their buff bodies oiled to perfection. As with many movies from that time period, the movie's soundtrack became a whole new entity that sort of defined the movie itself. With famed producer and songwriter Giorgio Moroder penning two of the film's biggest hits, "Danger Zone" sung by Kenny Loggins and "Take My Breath Away," performed by Berlin and which won an Oscar for Best Original Song, it was not a big surprise to find that many of the songs on the soundtrack album became singularly synonymous with the movie.

Tom Cruise was far from giving one of his better performances in "Top Gun." Not that we can blame him because the script doesn't call for anything remotely passable as effective dialogue. We do, however, come to find out in the film that Cruise can't sing to save his life! "Top Gun" may not be his best effort, but it did put Cruise on the Hollywood map as a bankable, dependable star. The same can be said for Val Kilmer. Also, look out for a very young Meg Ryan before her breakthrough performance in "When Harry Met Sally." Luckily, by then, Ryan had lost the awful hairdo she sported in this movie.

Hock's rating of the movie: 6/10

Video:
When Paramount released their HD DVD edition of "Top Gun" the year before this one, I found the disc's video quality somewhat variable. While most of the film was as good as anything I had seen in high definition, other parts looked exceedingly grainy, noisy, and faded, with facial tones often changing color from scene to scene. For whatever reason, I didn't notice these distractions as much in this BD50, 1080p, MPEG4/AVC Blu-ray transfer.

The picture again stretches to its original aspect ratio, 2.35:1, and since the first shots it contains are actual aerial footage, we still see the inevitable film grain. Colors are bright, sharp, and clear throughout the movie, with deep black levels setting off the contrasts well. The occasional glassiness I noted in the HD DVD persists. Definition fluctuates a bit according to the degree of filtering applied, and some scenes look a little too soft and smoothed out, while others still seem a bit rough. Although the overall video quality remains quite dark, the hues are rich and intense, perhaps more so than in real life. Destipte this, I found the Blu-ray transfer of the movie reasonably satisfying.

Audio:
Paramount provide two English soundtracks on this Blu-ray disc: the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 that already appeared on Paramount's HD DVD as well as a DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 mix. While it might seem a little odd that the studio would go to all the trouble of offering two lossless soundtracks on one disc, the fact is I did hear minor differences between them. Both tracks are strong on dynamics and impact, of course, and they do what they can to provide a wide stereo spread in the front channels and as many aural effects as possible in the rear channels. Yet switching back and forth during complex passages, the 6.1 DTS-HD mix appeared to be slightly louder and warmer than the 5.1 TrueHD. To me it seemed that the DTS track was pumping out a somewhat more inflated mid bass than the TrueHD, making background rock music, especially, sound a bit punchier. This comparative loudness difference that I noticed may have been a natural part of the DTS 6.1 soundtrack, or because I listened to the two soundtracks in 5.1 channels only, it may have been the result of folding the additional DTS channel into a 5.1 configuration. I don't know.

In any case, both formats do a fine job spreading the audio information around among the various channels, even if there isn't a lot that either format can do to subdue the soundtrack's occasional moments of hardness, forwardness, or brightness. Nevertheless, no matter which soundtrack you prefer, those dogfights never sounded so good.

Extras:
This new Special Collector's Edition Blu-ray disc contains all of the extras found on Paramount's standard-definition two-disc edition of few years back. As before, the extras are in standard def. First up is an audio commentary with director Tony Scott, co-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, co-writer Jack Epps, Jr., and naval experts Capt. Mike Galpin, Rear Admiral Pete Pettigrew, and Vice Admiral Mike McCabe. They are straightforward in their running commentary and while not entirely entertaining, they are informative. Of perhaps greater importance is the six-part, 2004 documentary, "Danger Zone: The Making of Top Gun," which spans some 147 minutes, and covers just about everything you'd ever want to know about the movie from pre-production through production, visual effects, music, release, and impact of the film. In addition, there are two multi-angle storyboards, "Flat Spin" and "Jester's Dead," which you can watch in either of several ways and with optional director commentary. Then there's a twenty-eight-minute featurette, "Best of the Best: Inside the Real Top Gun," which takes us into the real-life "Top Gun" school.

Following these items is a "Vintage Gallery" of older material. These include four music videos: "Danger Zone" with Kenny Loggins; "Take My Breath Away" with Berlin; "Heaven in Your Eyes" with Loverboy; and "Top Gun Anthem" with Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Stevens; a five-minute behind-the-scenes featurette; a seven-minute "Survival Training" featurette; seven TV spots; and a little over six minutes of Tom Cruise interviews. A lot of the bonus materials seemed redundant to me, but there is enough stuff here that most viewers should be able to find something of interest.

Things conclude with sixteen scene selections, with bookmarks but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Shots:
You get about thirty minutes or so of good movie in "Top Gun," and most of that comes at the end during the climactic aerial combat sequence. The dogfights and aerial footage are fun, but a person might best forget the love story and melodrama.

"Damn, this kid is good." --Tom Skerritt

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