TOP GUN (1986)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Action / War

Director: Tony Scott

Cast: Tom Cruise / Anthony Edwards / Kelly McGillis

Plot

Pilot Peter “Maverick” Mitchell is sent to the Navy’s top flight academy, but his loose cannon attitude causes friction with his fellow students and his instructors.  Things become more complicated when he falls for a civilian aeronautics expert who works there.

What I Liked

In some ways, “Top Gun” should have been buried in a time capsule in 1986. For, if I had to pick one single movie to illustrate what passed for mainstream entertainment in 1980s America, I would probably have to pick this one.    From the hit soundtrack featuring Kenny Loggins and Berlin, to the big budget production values, to the mind-numbing simplicity of its plot, the movie is a distillation of what worked in earlier blockbusters into the perfect product.  The filmmakers constructed a movie that is pure dazzle, full of pretty young people, lots of gorgeous sunset photography, and, best of all, aerial combat stunts and effects that surpassed anything previously filmed.

It might sound like the above praise is really not-so-veiled criticism.  Here’s the thing, though; all of it still works to full effect more than a quarter century later.  “Top Gun” remains as potent of a narcotic for the eyeballs as it was all those years ago.  Somehow this very dated movie has aged remarkably well, and that’s no accident.  For the filmmakers certainly knew that watching beautiful movie stars, fantastic action sequences play out against a brainless plot has been the very source of Hollywood’s success since the silent era.  Those things have rarely been done to such technical precision as they were here.

One other observation.  Perhaps the reason this movie’s action sequences still thrill is that they were filmed with real cameras shooting real planes (for the most part) doing real maneuvers and stunts.  There are a lot of benefits to the CGI effects of today, but I wonder if they’ll age as well as the real thing has in the case of “Top Gun.”

What I Didn’t Like

Director Tony Scott used to make commercials, and it shows.  This whole movie is a great commercial for the military, and there’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself.  It’s just that it’s all too perfect.  Nobody’s hair is out of place and their teeth are spotless.  The characters and conflicts are as cliché as they come.  Everything is filmed against either a purple sunset or a clear blue sky.  Even the sex scene is filmed with such blue-tinted precision that eroticism is rendered nonexistent.  Who can really relate to any of that?  Nobody.  Scott’s skills as a commercial filmmaker, though, were used to make us want to be able to relate.  It might have all been farcical escapism, but we can’t help but wish it were true.

Most Memorable Scene

As I said before, nothing even remotely close to the aerial photography and action featured in this movie had been seen in motion pictures before.  Thus these are used to great effect in the opening action scene to hook the audience right away.  We are treated to some popcorn popping eye candy and get introduced to some of the key characters (except for the faceless, voiceless Middle Eastern enemy, of course) in a fun-to-watch dog fight that sets the tone for the rest of the film.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5

MAN BITES DOG (1992)

A.K.A.: C’est Arrive Pres De Chez Vous

Country: Belgium

Genre(s): Comedy / Crime

Director: Remy Belvaux / Andre Bonzel / Benoit Poelvoorde

Cast: Benoit Poelvoorde / Remy Belvaux / Jacqueline Poelvoorde-Pappaert

Plot

A film crew follows a serial killer, catching his murders on film, and eventually becoming accomplices in his crimes.

What I Liked

I do have an affinity for most anything subversive.  Any creative output that offends the norm or challenges preconceived notions automatically scores a point or two with me, regardless of quality.  That probably shouldn’t be the case, but it is what it is.  A black comedy if there ever was one, “Man Bites Dog” apparently caused quite a stir in Europe upon its release for its frank portrayal of murder, even of children and old ladies.  In fact, the film is nowhere near as bloody or gruesome as I expected but it does generate a certain chill in those of us who are not sociopaths.  This is done not through gore or graphicness but through the point-blank, no frills, un-glossy depiction of death.  Also disturbing is the casual regard given to the murders by the man committing them and the crew of filmmakers who follow him around.  They treat the killing of innocents like a craft rather than a crime, dwelling on the proper strategies of committing murder and never once the morality of it.

The character of the killer, Ben, might be the most realistic portrayal of a serial killer this side of “Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer,” released a few years earlier (and reviewed earlier in this blog).  Like Henry, Ben is absolutely devoid of a conscience and goes about his work with a passion.  In most other ways, though, Ben is the antithesis of Henry.  He is a talkative, flamboyant man with friends and family, compared to monosyllabic loner Henry.  Ben has the sociopath’s narcissism and incessantly babbles on to the camera about art, culture, and poetry, clearly believing that the world should be absolutely fascinated with him.  He is completely unaware that the pretentious mask he wears is not only boring but also absolutely transparent, as its plain to see that he is a man lacking not only a soul but also a personality.  While I still feel Henry is likely the more accurate portrayal of your standard serial killer, Ben is still a frighteningly believable character who isn’t easily forgotten.

What I Didn’t Like

A mockumentary it may be, but “Man Bites Dog” is no “Spinal Tap.”  With a few exceptions, its laughs are generated primarily either through shock value or subversion.  For all its intentional silliness and self-referential satire, the film never once got an audible laugh out of me.  Really just a few smirks.  I don’t really care what it intends to say about society (the world’s current fascination with “reality” TV does make the film seem prophetic), ultimately it really failed to entertain or enlighten me in any way.

Most Memorable Scene

Ben’s invasion of a suburban household stands out along with similar scenes in “A Clockwork Orange” and “Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer” as among the most hard-to-sit-through murder scenes I’ve witnessed.  Maybe my coming from a mostly standard suburban background makes scenes like this literally hit home at little harder, but it definitely makes for a “worst nightmare” level scenario for me.

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5

THE PALEFACE (1948)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Comedy / Western

Director: Norman McLeod

Cast: Bob Hope / Jane Russell / Robert Armstrong

Plot

Calamity Jane reluctantly accepts a job working in secret for the feds to uncover a gun smuggling ring.  Wanting to pose as a common pioneer woman on a wagon train, she marries cowardly and bungling dentist “Painless” Peter Potter.

What I Liked

Bob Hope carries this otherwise dismal attempt at comedy on his back.  He successfully plays off of the common notions of the American Western hero by playing a fool and a coward caught in the type of situations we’re used to seeing involve men like John Wayne or the Lone Ranger.  Bolstered by Hope's shamelessly goofball cut-ups, Painless Potter’s buffoonery provides some amusement in a movie that has not aged well.

What I Didn’t Like

My source book points out that “The Paleface” is too silly to take its racist depictions of Native Americans and historical inaccuracies seriously, and generally speaking it is correct.  One can no more criticize these elements of a film this goofy than one can criticize similar racism and stupidity in the “Hot Shots” or “Scary Movie” franchises.  The filmmakers could be said to be spoofing the very same elements that appear in serious films of those genres.  Besides, it is clear that all of it is done in fun and no harm is meant whatsoever.  But I do wonder if today’s Native Americans feel the same way when they watch Hope goof around over a pile of “Injun” corpses.

Anyway, my dislike of this movie had little to do with its political incorrectness.  I was more offended by the fact that the movie just wasn’t all that funny.  The jokes just do not stand the test of time.  Sure there was a silly line that made me smirk here and there (“Rigor mortis, here I come!” or “Brave men run in my family”).  But overall this movie does not deserve a spot among the 1001 elite.  I’m pretty sure that this movie was picked to compliment Hope’s status as one of the premier film comedians of his era and, since this is (unfortunately) one of his best, it was (also unfortunately) squeezed in.  Shit, I’m not even a Jane Russell fan.  The woman couldn’t act worth a damn and if she’s what passed for a sex symbol in the forties, I’m sure glad I live in the days of Salma Hayek and Scarlett Johansson.

Most Memorable Scene

When Potter mistakes Jane’s dead-eye shooting for his own, he soon transforms himself into a puff-chested Dude and swaggers into a local saloon.  What happens next you can probably already guess and it leads to a wonderful parody of the standard Western duel.  Hope is perfect here; maybe because he’s allowed to just do his thing without much interference from other actors or annoying constraints like plot.

My Rating: 1.5 out of 5