In the pantheon of great Tom Cruise films, we can find the usual suspects. There’s the Mission: Impossible series, of course, a franchise that redefined the way we experience action blockbusters. then there are the tentpoles — Interview with the Vampire, Minority Report, The Last Samurai — that cemented him as a box-office draw. And finally we have the critical darlings — A Few Good Men, Born the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, Magnolia — that confirmed he was more than just another pretty face. And then there’s 1986’s Top Gun.
Conteúdo
- Take our breath away
- The myth of Tom Cruise
- O primeiro e único
Cruise was not an unknown when he first played Maverick — indeed, the actor rose to prominence with the one-two punch of The Outsiders and Risky Business in 1983 — but Top Gun marked a before-and-after point in his career. Cruise went from young and promising actor pre-Top Gun to hunky and bona fide movie star and legend in the making post-Top Gun. In other words, Top Gun took Tom Cruise and turned him into Tom Cruise.
Take our breath away
What was it about Top Gun __ that fascinated audiences then and now? Was it Cruise’s undeniable charm and charisma, a sex appeal that few, if any, actors of his time had? Was it the surprising love story between Cruise’s hotshot Maverick and the absurdly beautiful-yet-tough instructor Charlie (Kelly McGillis), enhanced by the timelessness of Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” the mother of all ’80s power ballads? Was it the latent homoerotic tension shared between any of the film’s numerous male characters or the over-the-top and thrilling action sequences that seemed taken out of real life while somehow remaining blatantly outlandish? Tudo o que precede.
Top Gun was one of a kind when it premiered in May 1986. Action films of the 1970s were brutal and somewhat ruthless — a natural progression of the noir and crime genres that gave rise to masterpieces like The French Connection and Chinatown. There was a deeply humane quality to their hardened detectives and dangerous women. But Top Gun was a new kind of breed, an action film that placed remarkable focus on the action rather than the characters performing it. The aerial sequences were monumental, going way past the thrilling and into the electrifying, bringing a sense of dynamism that made them seem utterly extraordinar,y yet somehow possible.
The film redefined what it meant to be a Navy pilot, romanticizing the experience and reframing it as a hot guy’s job. Even Goose’s death wasn’t enough to convince young men not to join the Navy following Top Gun. In his book Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies, veteran journalist David L. Robb retells how the Navy stated that the number of young men joining up spiked by 500% after Top Gun ‘s release.
Because who wouldn’t want to be Tom Cruise, wearing aviator shades and soaring to the skies after feeling the need for speed? Who wouldn’t want to charm the ladies while wearing a bomber jacket or playing volleyball shirtless on the beach? Top Gun did for the Navy what the Indiana Jones films did for archeology: Make it hot, incredibly exciting, and ridiculously unreal.
The myth of Tom Cruise
Risky Business turned Tom Cruise into an idol, but Top Gun __ made him a star. The film marked the beginning of Cruise’s undisputed reign as a major box office draw, cementing him as the definitive star of the late ’80s and early ’90s and the action hero of tomorrow. Long gone were the hardened and unbreakable men of noir and crime thrillers of yesteryear, replaced by a new kind of hero, one that seemed straight out of a magazine, more at home in a Calvin Klein ad than at the police station. He looked great shirtless and had a dazzling smile that could charm men and women alike. And Tom Cruise was the poster child for the archetype.
Top Gun was the prototype for many of Cruise’s future roles. In his Days of Thunder review, Roger Ebert described the typical Tom Cruise picture, using Top Gun as the blueprint for the formula. Indeed, many of Cruise’s portrayals — young and inexperienced, yet naturally talented and spirited men humbled by a female character Ebert described as “the superior woman” — resembled Maverick in more than a few ways. From The Color of Money and Cocktail to The Firm and Days of Thunder, and well into the new millennium with films like The Last Samurai, the Cruise formula prevailed. It’s no surprise that some of Cruise’s most acclaimed performances — Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, Magnolia, and the underrated Collateral — openly reject the archetype, allowing Cruise far more liberty and range.
No entanto, é difícil manter qualquer coisa contra top pun. Afinal, o filme criou o mito de Tom Cruise. Claro, o Rain Man_ foi o filme de maior sucesso de 1988, e poucos bons homens entregaram algumas das linhas mais citáveis no início dos anos 90, mas nenhuma de Tom Cruise uma lenda; Pelo contrário, o Cruise é uma grande razão pela qual esses filmes são clássicos modernos.
Mas top Gun era a plataforma de Cruise para o estrelato. Raramente vemos uma combinação tão perfeita entre o ator certo e o projeto ideal. Cruise e top Gun foram uma partida feita no céu, com o filme oferecendo a oportunidade perfeita para o cruzeiro se aprofundar e exibir seu inegável carisma e boa aparência, e ele capitalizou-os para criar sua imagem. Não é de admirar que Cruise tenha escolhido permanecer associado ao arquétipo Maverick; Se não estiver quebrado, por que consertar?
A conexão de Cruise com top Gun permaneceu inegável nos próximos anos, mesmo quando sua carreira cresceu no ápice de Hollywood. A influência do filme pode não ter sido explicitamente declarada, especialmente porque outros papéis se tornaram mais intimamente associados à obra de Cruise, mas permaneceram tacitamente presentes. Naturalmente, ninguém ficou surpreso remotamente quando a Paramount anunciou uma sequência de legado do filme. Se alguma coisa, a maioria de nós ficou chocada tanto para fazer.
O primeiro e único
TOP Gun: Maverick estreou com a aclamação de quase universo. Os críticos o consideraram muito superior ao original, elogiando a ação e pronunciando-a um dos grandes sucessos de bilheteria de todos os tempos. TOP Gun: Maverick é outro destaque em uma carreira cheia deles. Cruise e companhia dedicaram um tempo para entregar algo perfeitamente criado, e seu esforço é perceptível.
O filme original recebeu Cruise como o homem de ação de amanhã, mas top Gun: Maverick cimentando-o como a estrela de hoje. Ninguém está fazendo isso como um cruzeiro, porque quase ninguém tenta mais. O ator continua ultrapassando os limites do que é possível, proporcionando experiências cinematográficas cada vez mais emocionantes e incomparáveis. Muitos chamaram de Cruise, a última estrela de cinema, e há uma boa razão; Não é que ninguém mais seja capaz de fazer o que ele faz-é que ninguém parece disposto a tentar. Mas Cruise se importa o suficiente para todos, e seus fãs se importam em troca.
Tom Cruise conhece seu ofício. Como o próprio Maverick, ele fez o trabalho, aprendeu com os melhores e se humilhou para o público que construiu seu mito, tornando-se o mestre de seu ofício. Agora, ele assume o papel de mentor, inspirando novas gerações com suas proezas. É o círculo da vida e um desenvolvimento bonito e quase poético que o personagem que iniciou o caminho de Cruise para a imortalidade cinematográfica é o que o cimenta para sempre. Cruise e Maverick: Legends of the Screen.
A arma principalagora está transmitindo na Paramount +. Top Gun: Maverickestá atualmente nos cinemas em todo o país.