1986: Original TOP GUN Review | Film 86 | Classic Movie Review | BBC Archive
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- Опубликовано: 13 июл 2024
- Barry Norman reviews Top Gun, a high-octane military action film starring Tom Cruise as Maverick - a student at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school - who competes with Val Kilmer's rival pilot Iceman for the accolade of 'Top Gun'.
Tony Scott directs, while the supporting cast features Kelly McGillis, Tim Robbins, Tom Skeritt, Anthony Edwards, Michael Ironside and Meg Ryan. The soundtrack makes judicious use of Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone.
Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film has exceeded all box office predictions in the United States to become the summer's biggest hit. Tom Brook reports from the United States to see why this film - produced with the cooperation of the Pentagon and the blessing of the US Navy - has struck such a chord with moviegoers.
Originally broadcast 2 October, 1986.
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Barry Norman was old-school class. Incisive, composed and with a dash of dry humour. No waffle, no hype and never patronised the viewer. All he needed to sum up a film perfectly was 2-3 minutes. Top drawer and much missed.
I love how he said "Good evening" then immediately went into the review. I miss the days of Barry's films reviews, nobody does it like he did.
Although, I can't help but notice that he did pretty much spoil part of the movie. Not the most important part and hardly a surprising spoil, but still a spoil.
El Indio ... and weren't those well aimed barbs a treat - as an example, quote, "John Wayne winning the second world war single handed" ... at the time, it was very well known how scatching Barry Norman and John Wayne were about each other, after Wayne physically threatened Norman in an interview one time!
Of course, John Pilger also aired his thoughts over Wayne's utterly rediculous (1968) trope, The Green Beret's, quote, "I had just come back from Vietnam, and I couldn’t believe how absurd this movie was. So I laughed out loud, and I laughed and laughed." Pilger was laughing in a cinema in Louisianna, and would have been lynched if he and a friend hadn't run fast enough from a mob, back to the hotel.
Along with my own loathing of John Wayne - having witnessed what his life on celluloid makes of a human body on a real battlefield, I like reminding people that he was born with the name Marion, and never faught in a real war in his entire life, but that's just me being scathing ... 🤗 ...
@@oscarwilde5473 I can't stand John Wayne either. I'm in the Sergio Leone school of Western films anyway but I give Wayne's stuff a wide berth - gladly!
@@hugodrax71 ... then, I believe, you deserve a Sergio Leone treat that I've just spent the last half hour hunting down for you. This, you'll agree, is why I am so transfixed with Once Upon a Time in the West ... 🤗... : - ruclips.net/video/JiQLHL10BYo/видео.html
yeah while I respect these older guys and their say-it-how-it-is ways, they are a dated mess now also... if anyone thought they were "stuffy" and prude back in the day lol... sheesh...
and at that he sure has ate his words regarding tony scott as to what he went on to become.
So well put. Top Gun is simply an action film, no more no less, and one of the best ever made. I love everything about it.
Exactly especially considering in films from only 15 years before they still had model planes on a piece of string hanging in front of the camera.
Good job whoever dug this review out of the archives. I remember watching Barry Norman, then watching the film in the movies with somewhat jaundiced preconceived ideas. However, I loved the film and figured the review (while probably correct from a film critic point of view) completely missed the point. Certainly the American talking heads were completely off the mark, taking the dismissive and condescending tone to a sickening level.
It really does depend upon one's point of view. I remember sitting with a bunch of mates and a girl who had not seen it asked what the film was about. As we guys were gathering our thoughts, one of the girls piped up: "It's a love story." The guys looked at each other in shock, but we realised from her perspective she was telling the truth.
And how come Barry Norman glosses over the part played by Meg Ryan as the wife of Goose? A stellar performance as ever from Ms Ryan.
I think this was one of the cases where the audience had a better appreciation than the critics.
A Tony Scott film did indeed go on to draw a lot of successive box office business. Always enjoyed Barry Norman’s reviews, whether he liked the movie or not.
Not sure that was because they were Tony Scott films though. He was a pretty poor director and not widely known despite the prestige of his surname. I did quite enjoy Beverly Hills Cop 2 but, like the best of Scott's films, it was still just fun crap.
Scott did have a genuine unique style, that has been endlessly copied but never bettered. Beverly Hills Cop 2 was his worst effort and far inferior to the original. But, then art is all about preference and taste isn’t it.
@@redevidz Yes it is. I think The Taking of Pelham 123 was the last straw for me. The direction was horrendous. I agree about BHC 2 but it was still fun rubbish.
Barry Norman made me the film critic that I am.
He slated Orca, that was a great movie.
I love Top Gun. McGillis puts it very accurately: It’s just entertainment. Yes, it’s cheesy, but it scores top marks on all parameters that a 80s action film is measured at. It employs all the cliches of the genre, but does so perfectly. For all it’s flashiness, it’s unpretentious and doesn’t step outside of its genre and try to be more than what it is. That’s what I love about it.
The thing is that it created most of the clichés...
It employs all the cliches? Who do you think invented them?
Barry Norman was 53 here. Coincidentally the same age as Tom Skerritt, who played Viper, the head of the Top Gun school.
Spot-on review. Barry Norman was peerless. RIP
It wasn’t spot on . He said there were Russian MIGs . The enemy was nameless.
@@knownpleasures Migs are a russian plane tho. Not hard to put 2 and 2 together. Although, he was wrong about Charlie not having a call sign for being a girl. That was her call sign.
I started watching Barry Norman back in 1988, he was a very old school type of movie critic. It's nice to see these old clips of this show.
Remember that set & the good memories due to Barry Normans reviews. Rest in peace Barry & thank you
RIP Barry Norman and Tony Scott.
Also everyone else who used to be alive but now isn’t
@@delbongo Hello, RIP to the guy actually presenting the show on this vid and to the director of the movie being reviewed in the same vid, relevant?
Spot on from a critical standpoint, but perhaps way off base for what the public actual want sometimes. A visually impressive, cheesy action flick has it's place. Not all audiences want an Andrei Rublev or Citizen Kane.
I remember the talk at school of how you 'saw tongues' during the kiss...and then getting to see the movie on VHS and rewinding and replaying this exact part
Please note if you are under 40, Barry (us oldies) saw the film for what it was including its limitations and its view of women etc even then. So the woke review of it in todays Times newspaper didn’t teach me anything except what a virtue signaling load of bollocks it was
The world has gone mad.
I had a feeling Barry wouldn't have been crazy about it, but some of the moralizing from the other critics feels a bit more self-serving and difficult to bear, like asking Kelly McGillis if she regreted making such a hugely successful film... Why would she? I must say I was impressed with Cruise's perception of the "political" aspect of the film... He was only 23/24 here, but it was a surprising well-thought response for someone of his age and I think he's right to look at the film that way. Also, I'm not sure what Barry meant about it being wrong that it would be credited as a "Tony Scott film". He directed it, didn't he? Sure, he didn't write the script, but at least he was creatively involved unlike Spielberg on Back to the Future, who Barry seemed to give a lot of the credit for instead of Robert Zemeckis.
The complaint was not that he was creatively "involved", but that he was the creator, which calling it a "Tony Scott film" would imply. It's not like saying it's a Shakespeare or Tenn Williams play or as Norman mentions: A Scorsese or Kurosawa film that meant something. You could expect a certain type of film. It's a fair complaint
@@mango4ttwo635 Seems like a very pedantic nitpick though. The "quibble" about McGillis not having a nickname because "shes a girl" is also ridiculous. Her call sign was Charlie, he said it himself. I have never seen this man's reviews before but if this is anything to go by, he seems rather dislikable
Pretty much spot on, the characters and development are very simple but the style is undeniable and the action sequences and sound design was brilliant. Just a decade before a scene of a flying plane was often just a model on a piece of string.
Top Gun is a perfect mainstream popcorn movie. Was it puerile? Sure. But it never pretends to be anything other than what it is and honestly should be taken on that. In the end it is perfectly paced, hits all the right emotional notes, and has a cast that is instantly likable. Not being a hit with critics, even Baz, doesn't mean much if you are connecting with the public.
The 'too male' movie that was equally, if not more, loved by women.
Someone thinks they’re a film critic 🤦🏻♂️
@@AlexM-sg8fn everyone is a film critic
Barry Norman invented the 'Deadpan' delivery.
Always thought that Top Gun was visually very good but the story was as cheesy as it gets.
Hot Shots does it so much better, with deliberate cheese.
I first watched Top Gun back in 2010 as a teen and I loved it and have been a big fan ever since… I’m looking forward to seeing it this week
That Tom Brooke fellow's voice just gave me chills. He used to do a film review show on BBC Netherlands when I was young. This was around 1999, 2000, 2001. I remember him introducing me to movies like Magnolia, Boys Don't Cry, Adaptation. Such a great voice with that lisp.
This 22 year old Glaswegian found himself alone in Boulder, Colorado in May 1986 and looking to fill the evening with a trip to the flicks. This was what was on. The 'patriotic fervour' was at fever pitch, the whooping turned up to 11. Thrilling as the action was at the time, I still remember cringing at/for/because of the rest of the audience. Their reactions are clearly more memorable that the movie.
I slinging coke in Boulder back in 86
I remember in 1990 when I was 10 years old, I was at the mess hall with my dad during the weekend (I was a military kid). There was a side room with a tv and some other kids there suggested to watch either Top Gun or Rambo 2. We picked Rambo 2 because Top Gun, to use kids, took too long for anything interesting to happen lol. Now I consider Top Gun way better than Rambo 2 but Top Gun by itself isn't a masterpiece but just fun entertainment.
I was 15 in 1990 and to this day I have never seen Top Gun. However I have seen Rambo.2 hundreds of times.
What a perceptive and witty introduction!
"Why is Top Gun so popular? It has a built in star in Tom Cruise with teenage appeal. And jets are very loud. And combined with loud rock music, well ots going to be a box office success!"
So, so cynical Peter Travers. But so concise and accurate!
Kind of disappointed that Barry didn't say "bizarre homoerotic volleyball scene"
Probably because he enjoyed it.
The main star in this film is the F14 Tomcat and the only reason to watch this film !
I actually remember watching this with my Dad way back when i was a kid.
I found this rather amusing! I don’t think Barry Norman got Top Gun, it was similar to a Bond film, you just don’t take it too seriously. Sit back and enjoy the ride. I do agree with his rather amusing picture of Charlie being rather too mature to fall for Maverick and being his matron instead. 😂😂
Some matrons like having a boy toy.
1. Did you enjoy the film?
2. That's all that matters.
3. Reviewers reviewed The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi positively.
One wonders what an old school reviewer like Norman or even Jonathan Ross would have made of the last two, little good I'll wager.
He's a bit scathing about Star Wars in some ways but IIRC said that it tripped along enjoyably but I think Norman would have had great fun poking at all the stupidities of Rian Johnson's effort and the poor use to which he puts both is characters and actors. And why not?
I remember Barry Norman and his film years. He was a very good film critic.
that was a fair review it was a cheesy boys own dare I say childish at times but I like childish and cheesy and I too at the time in England watched this several times at the cinema, no streaming then, no actual internet to stream from
Cruise knew what was signing up for it was springboard so he could do more art house films like Rain Man etc.
Top Gun is a celebration of masculinity and patriotism. It falls flat on those who disparage either, or lack both.
This is the sort of review you would expect from a public broadcaster. The reviewer looks down his nose and sneers at the film. One interviewer asks Kelly McGillis whether she regrets her involvement in the film. Why would she regret being involved in a successful film. It's the attitude you expect from a public servant that never had to earn a profit and looks down on people who do.
"While it drags it feet on the ground, it's quite magnificent in the air"...now that I think about it, Top Gun is only a great movie because of the aerial dog fights 👍
Plus the soundtrack.
Plus a generational movie star in Tom cruise. I don't disagree the non flying scenes weren't great but he seriously underestimated how much the rest of it could make turn a mediocre script into a generational movie
I wonder how we'd feel if Tom cruise's career just flamed out.
It was such a good feeling seeing him as Maverick after all these long years of watching him in other things. He's had more complicated roles but I will always love him best in that role
Is the "Film..." series copyright and is it still running? It was a brilliant series and the reviews were amazing.
No. The BBC cancelled in 2018. I wish the BBC would make available all the old editions online(not just these little snippets). I suspect they still have the majority of them(I think a few early ones might be wiped).
I could watch it as a teenager but not now. Even with all the great aeroplane sequences I'd just get very bored of it.
Too cheesy?
@@southlondon86 Absolutely!
I miss Barrie Norman. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, he WAS the movies to me.
His programme would be on every Monday night ( 11pm) here in the UK. I would attempt to stay awake to watch it. I saw this movie on pirate vhs video, I'm old ..!
this looks fantastic, tom looks amazing for 59, when does this get released?
Barry Norman is so right about Top Gun dragging it's feet on the ground but really takes off in the skies. The movie is a drag until we get up in the skies then it's amazing!
never could stand Barry Norman. Smug, self-important and always so dismissive of anything that puts fun first (as many movies did at that time given that teenagers were the core cinema-going demographic back then). And Charlie doesn't get a nickname because she's a civilian, not because she's a girl. Barry never did let accuracy get in the way of his pseudo-intellectual diatribes.
Rocky IV and Rambo Part II next please.
Love Bazza but he sure had to eat his words over Tony Scott movies 😆
Brilliant movie. Got it on DVD. Can’t wait to see Top Gun: Maverick.
It's awful. Unwatchable.
??
@@original.dwornboy its mind blowing,go back to bed you fool
Why did they only make 86 films
Strangely, they only made 85 the year before.
Wow! Tom Brook. How long has he been talking movies (Talking Movies, gerrit??) at the BBC?
Berlin's "Take my breath away" mega-hit sold the film.That song has long since outlived the piece of merde slapped onto the screen with all the artistic finesse of a Jackson Pollock "masterpiece".
The whole soundtrack made the movie a smash, the music during jet scenes really sets the tone.
Never judge a movie by the pretentiousness of a critic. I've missed many a masterpiece, many good solid entertainment pieces because I fell into the trap. Some things really don't need in depth analysis. You like it or you don't. Either way is fine. 🤷♂️
@@dbrant90s I don't, thank you for your pretentious concern though. 😉👍
"the pretentiousness of a critic". So let's get rid of them, let's also get rid of professionals, experts and teachers.
What we are left with, are people like you who thinks that his opinion is as valid as someone else's fact.
Just because you disagree with him doesn't make him pretentious.
@@VULTUSPRIME You sound like Craig Mazin, the writer of such unfunny flops as Hangover 2 and Hangover 3. Mazin gets very upset when people deride what he calls the 'elite'. He is a proponent of elitism. But then, its a very specific elite thats promoted. Interestingly, everyone commenting (apart from the actors) in this piece .. on the film being too 'male' and too 'macho' and not feminist enough back in 1986.. was from the same tiny ethnic group. What are the odds? :) Of course people trust their instincts rather than some affirmative actioned "elite"that looks down on them.
Was it Tony Scott who topped himself ?
Lol...that first person. What a character, what a ....
Ah yes. Barry Norman. I remember him from my teenage years. Now I know where I get my antipathy for movie critics. Perhaps he was the inspiration for Squidward Tentacles.
This was released in Britain 5 months after it came out in America, completely missing the summer blockbuster period (if there was such a thing in Britain in the mid-80s) That's quite a gap.
I think tyhere were summer smashes during the 80`s at tyhe British box-office like ET and back to the future and Karate Kid.
Internationally it took in an estimated US$177,030,000 for a worldwide box office total of US$353,811,728.
She actually does have a call sign, "Charlie". Jester says it but she wasnt to be saluted as a civilian. He says she doesnt rate a nickname even though he just gave it. lol
I remember watching Top Gun as a 10 year old thinking all I wanted to be was a fighter pilot.
My CV would later include 3 years working at Makro, Royal Mail and later onto Prudential taking calls from bereaved widows and mistresses alike enquiring about the pensions of loved ones. Won’t bore you with what I’m doing now..but certainly feel a missed opportunity 😔
The cast is filled with talented actors, but it is a very contrived film that lacks real emotion or any meaningful impact.
Whoa. I Love this blazer and slacks. And the shirt and tie are POPPING
As of most films, it's entertainment, you either like it or you don't. Like Politics, the the truth isn't important.
Great review. The new film is objectively better
fair enough. Stands up to the test of time. Which says a lot about his integrity.
He actually said it it's a recruitment film just like the latest one!
Fascinating
It is vacuous though. It has great music and visuals,but no script like earlier blockbusters.
This Tom Cruise looks like he has a promising career in front of him
It’s not often Barry missed something about a Film. Yea the story is nothing special but spot on the best flying action and it was about the action. Yea it’s a locker room boys film. My Girlfriend enjoyed it just as much as I did. I liked the Airplanes. She really liked all the Hot young talent in the locker room. As did a few other girls I know. My wife was just as keen to see Tom return as Maverick as I was. She was less impressed than me, The locker room just wasn’t quite as good. I was quite happy with the action. The story was, who went to see the story anyway.
There is a massive misconception about these types of films from the past that when you look back them that were classics & “oh they don’t make movies like this anymore”. Based on this review this film is immature. A film with great shots of fighter jets & a rock soundtrack is just average.
I've watched the bob's burgers movie in theaters on the opening day Friday at a local complex movie theater. I'm not going to see a remake of Top Gun Maverick it's only would have Tom in it everyone else are someone different not the original. I never like the 1986 I was like 10. Thanks for sharing this video anyway.🎥🙂
I reckon if Barry Norman was around today and reviewed Top Gun: Maverick he probably would of said the same about this one.
Yes, this was male adolescent fantasy, even a silly one at points; nevertheless it was a fantasy with some basis in reality, including real technology, real careers, and real institutions, as opposed to what we see as the main course today (TopGun: Maverick excepted), i.e. men in capes and tights relying on cartoonish superpowers to defeat buffoonish supervillains in a cluttered display of CGI.
I miss Barry Norman rippin the pish
Nice plot spoiler there about Kelly's character!!
Speaking on behalf of myself and many othe suffers of anxiety this is a very safe place for a 44 year old
I miss the days when the BBC used to tell us what to watch -
One of my heroes. One of a kind.
Won’t be seeing the new one because I refuse to knowingly send one more dollar to Scientology, but Top Gun sure was a fun movie for a pre-teen growing up in the 80s.
Why would the navy need an astrophysicist?
Ah yes the moral compass we all should follow - the BBC 🤣🤣🤣
Cheerful Barry 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Interesting - rated 15 in 86 but in 89 dropped to a 12
Spot on review. Thankfully the sequel is a lot better.
Jazz’s was brilliant
Nothing like hearing a review of Top Gun from the mouth with a stiff upper lip
Bazza was brilliant
Funny, TADS is the only place still there on the block I bet.
I disagree... Though viewing it with a bias fuelled by fond nostalgia, having grown up with "Top Gun".
So many laboured criticisms, yet perfectly answered by Tom Cruise himself when he said if it was about the glorification of war there'd be a lot more fighting / combat in it. For me it's most remembered most for it's soundtrack, the excellent photography and portrayal of friendship & rivalry.
The ice cream on blazer critique was embarrassingly close to Alan Partridge... Talk of John Wayne ?! Utterly irrelevant. Lack of female characters- Look no further than the setting, There were no female naval aviators flying fast jets in the mid eighties. There's no malice about their exclusion from the film makers, rather it reflects the environment of those times.
Naff review, in contrast to the film- Which was excellent entertainment.
I think it's a great example of a film that makes you feel a certain way. It's a thrill ride nothing too deep. To me what a film is all about.
If I wanted something more serious I'd probably read a book.
I can’t think of a single time British academics have proven they’ve properly understood American pop entertainment when being outright hostile towards it. There’s no politics to infer and whatever subtext this film may have ever had was unearthed by Quentin Tarantino in ‘Sleep with Me’.
Of course there´s politics! The big baddies were the Russians. This was a cold war film, after all.
smacks of film critic snobbery. entertainment need not be intellectual - what set the movie apart was the quality of the action sequences, star appeal of Cruise, authenticity of location filming & a plausible storyline
Acting performances of co-stars Kilmer, Ryan & Edwards were quality too
The only acting performance that lets the movie down was McGinnis - she is awkward in her role; & Cruise and her lacked genuine chemistry
No quarter for fellow Brit Tony Scott, eh? lol
When wit and intelligence was all you needed to be a TV star. Watching this again makes me weep for how dumbed down British TV has become in the last 30 years.
Man, that was savage, even by Norman's standards. And absolutely bang on too.
Mark Harris of GQ later described Top Gun as "The Day the Movies Died", not because no good film was ever again made by Hollywood, but really because it was the "Top Gun generation" of filmgoers who grew up to become the writers and directors of today''s mindless pap.
But as scathing as Harris' piece was, it pales in comparison with Norman's effortless invective.
The fact that Hollywood is happy to regurgitate this pap some four decades later, is only slightly less depressing than the fact that today's equally mindless audience apparently still enjoys it.
"The Day the Movies Died" is a bit hyperbolic. People said it nine years before Top Gun when Star Wars hit it big. People said it when the Marvel movies mutated into a "cinematic universe". Studios need tentpole pictures that put butts into seats. That means a lot of overhyped crap rises to the top. Despite that, good films are always being made, and more of them are on the way whether Mark Harris agrees or not. Slick action spectacles like Top Gun and its sequel are nothing new. You could level the same criticisms at Bullitt or Ben-Hur. My advice is not to hold them to a lofty ideal. Just appreciate them for what they are: an amusement park ride.
To be fair there was mindless pap long before Top Gun.
Wasn't Mark Harris the one who married Martha Rae when she was in her eighties? 🤣🤣🤣🤣I'm sure he's in love with the woke rubbish Hollyweird churns these days.🤣🤣🤣🤣
@Bruce Wayne Okay, so she was damn near in her eighties. 🤣🤣🤣
Scathing :) but a fair bit of truth. However it was a well done teen movie which cannot be said for the surprisingly amateurish sequel.
LOL I don't agree with his assestment but I can't say I didn't enjoy this.
You think while watching top gun, your dead!
A very British review.
I saw it at The Cinema on it's release in 86 at The Point Milton Keynes and hated it.
It was just a load of Macho Bullshit.
The Best Thing About it was The Soundtrack Album. I played it to death on my walkman along with Rocky IV. Which I still have to this day. The Expanded Version, which has more tracks on it. Including You've Lost That Loving Feeling, which wasn't on The Original Album in The 80s .
Great Times and Great Memories 🎬🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
And it was a15 rated film!! Ha ha ha!!! They stopped me trying to see it...twice!!
One thing I don't miss from the 80's are all these stuck up suit guys reviewing movies.
Barry was the first.
Such a patronising and missing-the-point review 😂 I love it!
It was a fair and accurate review. I loved Barry Norman. So witty and erudite, and he was always quietly educating us to better choice,reading and enjoyment of movies.
She didn’t warrant a nickname as she’s just a girl?? Or because she’s not an aviator?!?! Trying to be woke before it was trendy xxx
cruise doesn't know that he will still the plane that move 😂
should bring this program back it's not on anymore is it? on yt
somebody should send this copy to Tom cruise has he seen it 😂
I think you could actually use Barry Norman character commentary through AI voice manipulation, do something like a Max Headroom with Barry Norman wit 🤗
Aaaaaaaaand, why not?!