Anyway, my thesis: Top Gun is a perfect movie.
Not necessarily an objectively perfect piece of cinema. Not necessarily my favorite movie, or yours. But as a piece of commercially produced media written to tell a story to an audience in a compelling way, it's a flawlessly executed one. It keeps the plot moving along quick enough that you don't really notice the holes in the rear view, the dialogue is sharp, the action is kinetic and exciting, the pacing is spot on and maintains the tension even through a training sequence that could have lagged, there's good subplots and a tragic death of a compelling character, the characters all have an arc, the music is sentimental and fitting, the choice of hero jet and star to fly it was incredible.
"And if you screw up even this much? I'll have you flyin' a cargo plane fulla rubber dogshit outta Hong Kong."
