The Unintentional (or Was It?) Homoerotic Subtext
Between the shirtless beach-volleyball match, the tight uniforms, the tension-filled locker-room scenes and the longing glances, Top Gun is almost as famous for its barely veiled homoeroticism as for its aviators. When the film begins, the bromance between Maverick and Goose is palpable. And when Goose dies, Maverick mourns him like a lover. That is, until he finds a new prospect in Iceman. Though it has always been thought to have been unintentional, it’s hard to imagine that the makers of the film couldn’t see the obvious subtext. The theory has generated so much buzz that someone recut the original trailer to portray the love story between Maverick and Iceman. In the 1994 movie Sleep with Me, Quentin Tarantino argued that the plot is really about one man’s struggle with his own homosexuality.
Warning: video contains explicit language.
The Reagan-Era Jingoism
The film’s an incredible historical artifact. Though the Cold War was slowly winding its way down by the time of Top Gun‘s 1986 release, the movie still managed to make fighting the Soviets look very, very cool. Essentially one very expensive and good-looking recruiting video for the Navy, Top Gun resulted in a particularly hearty recruitment season for the military branch following its release.
