Top Gun (DVD)

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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 even to save his own life! "Top Gun" may not be his best effort but it did put Cruise on the Hollywood map as a bankable and dependable star. The same thing 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.

Video:
As I do not own the previous non-anamorphic DVD release of "Top Gun", I am not able to do a one-to-one comparison for you. But to allay any fears that the fans of this film might have, this new release comes with a great video transfer that is anamorphically enhanced and measures 2.35:1. The video images are not 100% clean as I spotted some minor scratches to the print. However, the colors are natural, vibrant and vivid, without any noticeable bleeding and the images are sharp and detailed. Kudos to Paramount for doing a great job with this video transfer. Unlike the first release, this one doesn´t come with a Pan & Scan version of the film. Subtitles options include English and Spanish.

Audio:
Listening to the movie through the English language Dolby Digital 5.1 track, I was literally blown away by the very dynamic and very directional audio sequences during the action scenes. Listen carefully as the jets to scream past your right surround channel towards the front and then to the left. Also included is an English DTS 6.1 Surround audio track that performs on par, if not slightly better than the 5.1 track. As my sound system is not configured for 6.1 audio, I am not able to report on the effectiveness of the rear channel but the rest of the channels are as dynamic as the Dolby Digital track. Other audio options include Dolby Surround 2.0 in English and French.

Extras:
In terms of creating new bonus material for this 2-DVD set, Paramount has come through big time for fans of "Top Gun". This is one of the few releases that lives up to its "Special Collector´s Edition" moniker.

Disc 1:
Disc 1 contains the movie and also an audio commentary by director Tony Scott, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, co-screenwriter Jack Epps, Jr., Captain Mike Galpin, technical advisor Pete Pettigrew and Vice-Admiral Mike McCabe. All the participants--some more than other--offer a great deal of information about the movie and what went on behind the scenes. Tony Scott´s droning voice is a little monotonous but Bruckheimer and the others are able to liven things up a bit. If you have the time, this is quite an interesting listen.

Still on Disc 1 is a "Vintage Gallery". This collection contains four music videos and seven television spots. The music videos are Kenny Loggins´ "Danger Zone", Berlin´s "Take My Breath Away", Loverboy´s "Heaven in Your Eyes" and the "Top Gun Anthem" by German composer Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Stevens. The TV spots are short trailers with the following titles: Patriotism, Story, Male Action, Romance, Cruise/Action, Cruise/Moody and Music.

Disc 2:
The second DVD contains more comprehensive features. Leading off is a slightly longer than 150-minute documentary (longer than the movie itself) detailing every aspect in the making of the film. Titled "Danger Zone: The Making of Top Gun", it is divided into six of the following categories:
From the Ground Up – Pre-Production
Playing With the Boys – Production: Land and Sea
The Need For Speed – Production: Air
Back to Basics – Visual Effects
Combat Rock – The Music of Top Gun
Afterburn – Release and Impact

Presented in anamorphic video, this documentary is very clear (with almost HD quality) and very detailed. It contains every little thing that you would ever want to know about "Top Gun". The most interesting section is "From the Ground Up – Pre-Production" where principal crew members like Bruckheimer, director Tony Scott and writer Jack Epps, Jr. are interviewed about how the film got made. Among the stories you will hear include Bruckheimer´s tangle with Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg and how they didn´t like the script that was handed to them. Also discussed are the casting decisions. Epps admitted that he wrote the screenplay with Cruise in mind for the role of Maverick. The section on aerial stunt sequences is also interesting as interviews with actual Navy officers who were part of the filming reveal how little the Hollywood guys know about flying jet fighters. Scott and his crew would come up with impossible flying sequences that had to be dialed down by the pilots. In "Combat Rock – The Music of Top Gun", you will see interviews with Giorgio Moroder, Harold Faltermeyer, Kenny Loggins and Terri Nunn (the lead singer of Berlin). Then the film editors, Chris Lebenzon and Billy Weber get to say their piece as they talk about the harrowing experience they had with this film. Overall, this is one of the most comprehensive behind-the-scenes documentaries I have ever come across.

Next up is "Multi-Angle Storyboards", which presents two sequences called "Flat Spin" and "Jester´s Dead". You can watch this in two ways: storyboard only or storyboard/final shot comparison. You can use the ´Angle´ button on your DVD remote to switch between them and also turn on or off the audio commentary by Tony Scott. All in all, a very interactive feature.

Finally, we have another feature called "Vintage Gallery". This time, it features documentaries that were recorded way back in the 80s when the film was made. There are "Behind-the-Scenes Featurette", "Survival Training Featurette", "Tom Cruise Interviews" and "Production Photography". After watching the other documentary on this disc, the ones here seem inconsequential. Still, they are interesting, in a time capsule kind of way.

Packaging:
This "Top Gun: Special Collector´s Edition" DVD set is packaged in a regular 2-disc keepcase.

Film Value:
Recently, in celebration of their new cheese-flavored crumpets, British bakery company Warburtons posed the question, "What is your top cheesiest moments in film?" to U.K. moviegoers and Val Kilmer´s awful "You can be my wingman anytime" line to Tom Cruise at the end of "Top Gun" came in at number six. Interestingly, number one was the infamous "I´m the king of the world!" line from "Titanic".

This tiny nugget of useless information serve to illustrate the impact of "Top Gun" on the psyche of many moviegoers almost twenty years later. Many of us still remember the film, not for its dramatic contribution to the art of moviemaking but for the glamorous images that somehow still sticks to our minds like a leech. Never one to shy away from freely admitting the fact that he makes popcorn flicks that wows rather than intrigues its audience, Bruckheimer discovered the perfect money-making formula with "Top Gun". It may not be a good movie to begin with but "Top Gun"´s great impact on popular culture is still felt almost two decades later. And it lives on in many of Jerry Bruckheimer's other movies.

As for this latest 2-disc release of "Top Gun", it hits a homerun in terms of audio/video quality and the amount of bonus material available. Fans of this movie should definitely put in for an upgrade.

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