Description

This week, we could tell you all about Tony Scott’s 1986 military rollercoaster Top Gun, but then we’d have to kill you. Is this film nothing more than a macho fantasy? Is there a queer subtext — or text? Where is the danger zone, and who built this highway?

Content Warnings: militaristic violence, death of a loved one

Unanswered Questions:

• Does Maverick really change in the course of the film, or does the narrative confirm that he right all along?
• What are the queer dimensions to the film? What do we make of the exaggerated performance of masculinity?
• Is Charlie’s independence sufficient? What happens to her after the film?

Further reading:

• Roger Ebert on Days of Thunder
• Top Guns by Ehud Yonay
• Nothing On Earth Comes Close (Tony Scott, Saab)
• Flying High With Top Gun (American Cinematographer)
• Rewrite Man: The Life and Career of Screenwriter Warren Skaaren by Alison Macor
• Top Gun script draft by Chip Proser
• Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
• The Last Star In Hollywood Definitive List Of Tom Cruise Films
• The Last Star In Hollywood: Production Schedule

Thanks for listening! For bonus shows, extra content and more, support The Last Star In Hollywood on Patreon.com/LastStarPod!

Join us next time as we get back to some old-fashioned Hollywood prestige – and the film that gets Paul Newman his Academy Award for Best Actor after being nominated for six previous movies – with Martin Scorsese’s 1986 film The Color Of Money. 

The Last Star In Hollywood is an independent podcast produced by Elizabeth Rae and Alastair Stephens.

Copyright © 2023 The Last Star In Hollywood. All Rights Reserved.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★