1986 [top gun]

juliezhou · Guru

RE: 1986 [top gun]

juliezhou · Guru

1985.06.03 Variety: Top Gun casting news: femme, 26-28

1985.06.03 top gun casting.jpg

1985.06.03 top gun casting-2.png

juliezhou · Guru

“Top Gun”: The North American 70mm Engagements

“Up there with the best of the best.”

The following is a reference / historical listing of the 70-millimeter presentations of “Top Gun” in North America. These were the cinemas worth seeking out to experience this motion picture.

“Top Gun” was among sixteen confirmed first-run films released in 1986 with 70mm prints for selected engagements. Approximately one-hundred twenty-five 70mm prints of the film were struck for distribution in North America and represented about 12% of the film’s total initial print run. The Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer production and Paramount release — directed by Tony Scott (“Days of Thunder,” “The Last Boy Scout”) and starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis — opened May 16th.

Pre-release screenings included a 70mm sneak preview held May 10th in numerous locales (many of which were a double feature with Paramount’s 35mm “Blue City” or “Fire with Fire”). Benefit premieres and invitational previews were held in numerous locales including New York (May 12th), San Diego (May 15th) and Washington, DC (May 18th).

For the release of “Top Gun,” Paramount employed the services of Lucasfilm’s Theatre Alignment Program (TAP) to evaluate and approve the theaters selected to book a 70mm print.

The 70mm prints of “Top Gun” featured magnetic Six-Track Dolby Stereo (“A” encoded Baby Boom format with a Split-Surround playback option) and 2.20:1 full-frame imagery blown up from Super-35 and provided a superior projection and sound experience in comparison to the film’s 35mm prints.

Note that some cinemas may have screened a 70mm Six-Track Dolby Stereo print utilizing Dolby-compatible equipment from another manufacturer (EPRAD, Smart, Ultra Stereo, etc.), and in some instances an exhibitor may have made a special request for a 70mm print that lacked Dolby Noise Reduction so it could be played on a cinema’s older, pre-Dolby-era sound system.

Paramount circulated a 70mm Six-Track Dolby coming-attraction teaser trailer for “The Golden Child” during the initial weeks of the release of “Top Gun.” Over the course of the movie’s lengthy run, Paramount circulated additional 70mm Six-Track Dolby trailers including “Children of a Lesser God,” “‘Crocodile’ Dundee,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Friday the 13th Part VI,” “Heartburn,” “Some Kind of Wonderful” and “Star Trek IV.” Other studios circulated 70mm trailers during this period, as well. Ultimately, any 70mm trailers screened during 70mm presentations of “Top Gun” varied by venue and screening.

The duration of the engagements (measured in weeks) is included in parenthesis following the applicable cinema name.

ALBERTA

Calgary — Famous Players’ Palliser Square Twin (22)

Calgary — Famous Players’ Sunridge 5 (21)

Edmonton — Famous Players’ Paramount (9)

Edmonton — Famous Players’ Westmall 5 (32)

ARIZONA

Tucson — Mann’s Buena Vista Twin (19) [70mm?]

ARKANSAS

Little Rock — UA’s Cinema 150 (30)

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Burnaby — Famous Players’ Lougheed Mall Triplex (28)

Vancouver — Famous Players’ Stanley (28) [THX]

Victoria — Famous Players’ Coronet (9)

CALIFORNIA

Berkeley — Cinerama’s Berkeley (10)

Burlingame — Syufy’s Hyatt Triplex (20)

Corte Madera — Marin’s Cinema (11)

Costa Mesa — Edwards’ South Coast Plaza Triplex (22)

Daly City — Plitt’s Plaza Twin (20) [THX]

Fremont — Syufy’s Cinedome East 8 (35)

Glendora — Mann’s Glendora 6 (31) [70mm from Week 16]

Laguna Hills — Edwards/SoCal’s Laguna Hills Mall Triplex (32) [70mm from Week 22]

Lakewood — Pacific’s Lakewood Center 4 (25)

Los Angeles — Mann’s Chinese Triplex (6) [THX]

Los Angeles — Mann’s National (7) [THX]

Los Angeles — Mann’s Valley West 6 (20) [70mm from Week 14]

Monrovia — Mann’s Huntington Oaks 6 (23) [70mm from Week 22]

Montclair — Pacific’s Montclair Triplex (25)

Newport Beach — Edwards’ Newport Twin (10)

Orange — Syufy’s Cinedome 6 (20)

Pinole — Syufy’s Century 9 (27) [70mm from Week 13]

Sacramento — Syufy’s Century 6 (#1: 22)

Sacramento — Syufy’s Century 6 (#2: 2) [interlock]

Sacramento — Syufy’s Cinedome 8 (#1: 30)

Sacramento — Syufy’s Cinedome 8 (#2: 2) [interlock]

San Diego — Mann’s Loma (28)

San Diego — Pacific’s Cinerama (20)

San Francisco — Blumenfeld’s Regency I (10)

San Jose — Syufy’s Town & Country (22)

Temple City — Edwards’ Temple 4 (20) [70mm from Week 14]

Torrance — Mann’s Old Towne 6 (30)

Ventura — Mann’s Buenaventura 6 (28) [70mm from Week 16]

West Covina — SoCal’s Eastland 5 (21) [70mm from Week 17]

COLORADO

Denver — Mann’s Century 21 (11) [THX]

CONNECTICUT

East Hartford — Redstone’s Showcase 9 (25)

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Washington — K-B’s Cinema (10) [opened May 19th]

FLORIDA

Fort Myers — Cobb’s Bell Tower 6 (40) [70mm from Week 18]

Kendall — AMC’s Town & Country 10 (25)

North Miami Beach — Wometco’s 163rd Street Triplex (25)

Tampa — Plitt’s University Collection 6 (25) [70mm?]

Winter Park — Wometco’s Winter Park Triplex (21)

GEORGIA

Atlanta — GTC’s Lenox Square 6 (26)

Kennesaw — Storey’s Town Center 8 (24) [opened May 23rd]

Savannah — Litchfield’s Tara 4 (1+)

Tucker — AMC’s Northlake Festival 8 (25)

HAWAII

Honolulu — Consolidated’s Waikiki Twin (21) [HPS-4000]

ILLINOIS

Belleville — BAC’s Cinema 4 (9)

Calumet City — Plitt’s River Oaks 8 (8)

Chicago — Plitt’s Carnegie (7)

Lombard — GCC’s Yorktown 6 (27) [THX]

Schaumburg — Plitt’s Woodfield 9 (25)

Skokie — M&R’s Old Orchard 4 (11)

INDIANA

Fort Wayne — MSM’s Holiday Twin (22)

IOWA

Des Moines — Dubinsky’s River Hills (31) [70mm from Week 8]

KANSAS

Overland Park — Dickinson’s Glenwood 4 (23)

KENTUCKY

Louisville — Redstone’s Showcase 11 (32)

LOUISIANA

Metairie — Cobb’s Lakeside 4 (22)

MANITOBA

Winnipeg — Famous Players’ Metropolitan (9)

MARYLAND

Baltimore — Durkee’s Senator (20)

Greenbelt — AMC’s Academy 14 (#1: 30) [opened May 19th]

Greenbelt — AMC’s Academy 14 (#2: 3) [opened May 19th]

Timonium — Loews’ Timonium Triplex (May 10th sneak preview only)

Woodlawn — GCC’s Security Square Mall 4 (13)

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston — USA’s Charles Triplex (8)

MICHIGAN

Ann Arbor — UA’s Fox Village 4 (33)

Bloomfield — Redstone’s Showcase 10 (25)

Burton — Redstone’s Showcase 6 (8)

Cascade — Redstone’s Showcase 8 (32) [THX]

Dearborn — UA’s The Movies at Fairlane 10 (32)

Farmington Hills — SDT’s Old Orchard Triplex (9) [70mm from Week 3]

Harper Woods — SDT’s Eastland 7 (25)

Saginaw — Goodrich’s Quad 10 (27) [70mm promoted sporadically from Week 12]

Southfield — SDT’s Northland Twin (5)

Sterling Heights — Redstone’s Showcase 11 (24)

MINNESOTA

Maplewood — UA’s The Movies at Maplewood II 6 (30)

MISSOURI

Chesterfield — Wehrenberg’s Clarkson 6 (23)

Independence — Mid-America’s Blue Ridge East 5 (7)

Kansas City — Commonwealth’s Bannister Mall 5 (22)

NEVADA

Las Vegas — Syufy’s Parkway Triplex (42)

NEW YORK

Amherst — GCC’s University 8 (27) [THX]

New York — Loews’ 34th Street Showplace Triplex (6)

New York — Loews’ 84th Street 6 (7)

New York — Loews’ Astor Plaza (7)

New York — Loews’ Orpheum Twin (7)

New York — Loews’ State Twin [May 10th sneak preview only]

NORTH CAROLINA

Raleigh — Litchfield’s Mission Valley 5 (28)

NOVA SCOTIA

Halifax — Famous Players’ Scotia Square (1+)

OHIO

Cincinnati — Redstone’s Showcase Eastgate 8 (31) [70mm from Week 7]

Columbus — GCC’s Northland 8 (32) [THX]

Dayton — Chakeres’ Dayton Mall 8 (35)

Mentor — NTC’s Great Lakes Mall 5 (28)

North Olmsted — NTC’s Great Northern 7 (28) [THX] (70mm from Week 20)

Springdale — Redstone’s Showcase 8 (38)

Toledo — Redstone’s Showcase 5 (31)

Whitehall — Chakeres’ Cinema East (19) [70mm from Week 8]

OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma City — Commonwealth’s Quail Twin (22)

Tulsa — UA’s Boman Twin (23)

ONTARIO

Hamilton — Famous Players’ Tivoli (9)

London — Famous Players’ Park (1+)

Mississauga — Famous Players’ Square One 4 (8)

North York — Famous Players’ Towne & Countrye Twin (9)

Ottawa — Famous Players’ Elgin Twin (22)

Scarborough — Famous Players’ Cedarbrae 6 (9)

Toronto — Famous Players’ Cumberland 4 (4) [La Reserve]

Toronto — Famous Players’ Eglinton (7) [THX]

Toronto — Famous Players’ Runnymede Twin (9)

Toronto — Famous Players’ University (9)

OREGON

Portland — Moyer’s Bagdad Triplex (28) [HPS-4000]

Wilsonville — Moyer’s Grand Parkway 5 (30) [70mm from Week 12] [HPS-4000]

PENNSYLVANIA

Montgomeryville — Budco’s 309 4 (25)

Philadelphia — Budco’s Orleans 8 (25)

Philadelphia — Sameric’s Sam’s Place Twin (6)

QUEBEC

Dorval — United’s Dorval Triplex (7)

Laval — United’s Laval 5 (7)

Montreal — United’s Imperial (9) [THX]

Sainte-Foy — United’s Canadien (9) [70mm from Week 8]

TENNESSEE

Knoxville — Simpson’s Capri 4 (31)

Nashville — Carmike’s Belle Meade (25)

TEXAS

Addison — UA’s Prestonwood Creek 5 (28) [THX]

Arlington — Loews’ Lincoln Square 6 (22)

Austin — AMC’s Americana (10)

Austin — Presidio’s Arbor 4 (25) [THX]

Dallas — Loews’ Park Central 4 (10)

Dallas — UA’s Cine Twin (20)

Dallas — UA’s Walnut Hill 6 (21)

Fort Worth — UA’s Hulen 6 (31) [THX] [renovated to 10-plex during run]

Houston — Plitt’s West Oaks 7 (28)

Houston — Plitt’s Woodlake Triplex (22)

Hurst — UA’s North East 6 (24) [THX]

Mesquite — AMC’s Towne Crossing 8 (#1: 37)

Mesquite — AMC’s Towne Crossing 8 (#2: 7) [interlock]

San Antonio — Santikos’ Galaxy 10 (31) [THX]

San Antonio — Santikos’ Northwest 10 (26) [THX]

UTAH

Salt Lake City — Mann’s Villa (20)

Salt Lake City — Plitt’s Centre (20)

VIRGINIA

Richmond — NTI’s Ridge 7 (31)

Springfield — GCC’s Springfield Mall 6 (22) [THX] (opened May 19th)

WASHINGTON

Bellevue — SRO’s Factoria 8 (41)

Lynnwood — SRO’s Grand Alderwood 8 (33)

Seattle — SRO’s Cinerama (10)

Seattle — SRO’s Oak Tree 6 (31) [THX]

Spokane — SRO’s Lyons Avenue 4 (31)

Tacoma — SRO’s Tacoma Mall Twin (20)

Tukwila — SRO’s Lewis & Clark 7 (33)

WISCONSIN

Brookfield — GCC’s Brookfield Square Twin (12)

Greenfield — Capitol’s Spring Mall 4 (27) [70mm from Week 13]

Madison — Marcus’ Eastgate 6 (28) [70mm from Week 16]

Note that some of the presentations included in this listing were presented in 35mm during the latter week(s) of engagement due to contractual terms or because of print damage and the distributor’s unwillingness to supply a 70mm replacement print or because the booking was moved to a non-70mm-equipped auditorium within a multiplex. As well, the reverse may have been true in some cases whereas a booking began with a 35mm print because the lab was unable to complete the 70mm print order in time for an opening-day delivery or the exhibitor negotiated a mid-run switch to 70mm. In these cases, any 35mm portion of the engagement (or movement out of a branded auditorium) has been included in the duration figure.

SUBSEQUENT 70MM ENGAGEMENTS & SCREENINGS

1986-07-02 … Indianapolis, IN — Y&W’s Eastwood (6)

1986-07-02 … Los Angeles, CA — Mann’s Regent (5)

1986-07-02 … Toronto, ON — Famous Players’ Palace Triplex (4)

1986-07-11 … Burton, MI — Redstone’s Eastland Twin (19) [re-named Courtland during run]

1986-07-17 … Toronto, ON — Famous Players’ Uptown 5 (20)

1986-07-18 … Montreal, QC — United’s Palace 6 (20)

1986-07-18 … Vancouver, BC — Famous Players’ Denman Place (5)

1986-07-25 … San Francisco, CA — Blumenfeld’s Regency III (10)

1986-07-25 … Washington, DC — GCC’s Jenifer Twin (4)

1986-08-01 … San Rafael, CA — Marin’s Regency 6 (15)

1986-08-08 … Los Angeles, CA — Mann’s National (7) [THX]

1986-08-15 … Anchorage, AK — Festival’s Valley River 6 (16)

1986-08-29 … Beverly Hills, CA — AMPAS’ Goldwyn [Dolby “Split Surround” demo]

1986-08-29 … Fort Worth, TX — Cinemark’s Ridglea (8)

1986-08-29 … Newmarket, ON — Famous Players’ Glenway 5 (5)

1986-08-29 … Scarborough, ON — Famous Players’ Cedarbrae 8 (14)

1986-08-29 … Toronto, ON — Famous Players’ Palace Triplex (4)

1986-08-29 … Victoria, BC — Famous Players’ Coronet (6)

1986-08-29 … Winnipeg, MB — Famous Players’ Northstar Twin (8)

1986-09-05 … Calumet City, IL — Plitt’s River Oaks 8 (6)

1986-09-05 … Chicago, IL — M&R’s Hyde Park Triplex (1)

1986-09-05 … Los Angeles, CA — Pacific’s Cinerama Dome (5)

1986-09-12 … Birmingham, AL — Cobb’s Village East Twin (4)

1986-09-12 … Skokie, IL — M&R’s Old Orchard 4 (3)

1986-09-19 … Hamilton, ON — Famous Players’ Tivoli (4)

1986-09-26 … Los Angeles, CA — Mann’s Bruin (1) [THX]

1986-10-03 … Albuquerque, NM — Commonwealth’s Winrock 6 (14) [THX]

1986-10-03 … Mountain View, CA — Syufy’s Century 10 (12)

1986-10-03 … Orange, CA — Syufy’s City Center 4 (6)

1986-10-03 … South Salt Lake, UT — Syufy’s Century 5 (4)

1986-10-03 … South San Francisco, CA — Syufy’s Century Plaza 8 (8)

1986-10-03 … Tacoma, WA — SRO’s Tacoma South 5 (8)

1986-10-08 … Los Angeles, CA — Pacific’s Hollywood Pacific Triplex (2)

1986-10-10 … Fairview Heights, IL — Wehrenberg’s St. Clair 10 (11)

1986-10-17 … Sacramento, CA — Syufy’s Capitol 4 (6)

1986-10-17 … San Jose, CA — Syufy’s Century 22 Triplex (6)

1986-10-24 … Homewood, IL — Plitt’s Diana 4 (1)

1986-10-24 … Houston, TX — GCC’s Galleria 4 (1)

1986-10-24 … Norfolk, VA — Naro (2 days)

1986-10-31 … Winnipeg, MB — Cineplex Odeon’s Towne 8 (23)

1986-11-14 … Dothan, AL — Davis’ Northside Mall 7 (5)

1986-11-21 … Bedford, TX — UA’s Bedford 10 (4) [THX]

1986-11-21 … Downers Grove, IL — Classic Cinemas’ Tivoli (3)

1986-11-21 … Newport Beach, CA — Edwards’ Newport Twin (1)

1986-11-26 … San Jose, CA — Syufy’s Century 24 Twin (1)

1986-11-26 … Vancouver, BC — Famous Players’ Capitol 6 (4)

1986-12-05 … City of Industry, CA — Mann’s Puente Hills 6 (1) [THX]

1986-12-05 … San Diego, CA — Mann’s Cinema 21 (1)

1986-12-05 … San Francisco, CA — Plitt’s Northpoint (2)

1986-12-05 … San Jose, CA — Syufy’s Century 25 Twin (3)

1986-12-12 … Citrus Heights, CA — UA’s Greenback Lane 6 (8) [THX]

1986-12-19 … Colorado Springs, CO — Commonwealth’s Cooper Triplex (8)

1986-12-19 … Littleton, CO — Commonwealth’s Cooper 7 (8) [HPS-4000]

1986-12-19 … Los Angeles, CA — Mann’s Studio (1) [w/ “The Color of Money”]

1987-01-16 … Calgary, AB — Cineplex Odeon’s Uptown (2)

1987-01-21 … Hartford, CT — Trinity College’s Cinestudio (4 days)

1987-03-04 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (12 days) [70mm festival]

1987-04-03 … Cleveland, OH — CWRU’s Strosacker [CWRU Film Society series]

1987-06-09 … Atlanta, GA — Fox [10th annual summer film festival]

1988-01-01 … Niagara Falls, ON — Niagara Falls IMAX (1) [70mm festival]

1988-01-20 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (12 days) [70mm festival]

1988-03-25 … Edmonton, AB — Cineplex Odeon’s Meadowlark (1) [70mm festival]

1988-11-15 … Los Angeles, CA — Pacific’s Cinerama Dome [venue 25th anniversary]

1988-12-10 … Los Angeles, CA — GCC’s Fallbrook 7 (2 days) [THX]

1989-02-15 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (5 days) [70mm festival]

1990-01-10 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (5 days) [70mm festival]

1990-03-31 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (2 days) [70mm festival]

1990-04-13 … Renton, WA — Roxy

1990-06-15 … Waco, TX — Schulman’s Schulman 5 (1) [THX]

1991-03-06 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (5 days) [70mm festival]

1992-01-29 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (11 days) [70mm festival]

1992-03-30 … Vancouver, BC — CN IMAX (4 days) [70mm festival]

1992-10-18 … Los Angeles, CA — AMC’s Century 14 [retro festival]

1992-10-22 … Los Angeles, CA — AMC’s Century 14 [retro festival]

1992-12-10 … Des Moines, IA — Merle Hay Mall [70mm festival] (70mm?)

1993-02-13 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (2 days) [70mm festival]

1993-02-19 … Vancouver, BC — CN IMAX (2 days) [weekend 70mm series]

1993-02-26 … Vancouver, BC — CN IMAX (2 days) [weekend 70mm series]

1993-10-02 … Edmonton, AB — Famous Players’ Paramount [midnight] (THX)

1993-10-09 … Vancouver, BC — Famous Players’ Capitol 6 [latenight 70mm series]

1994-03-05 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (2 days) [70mm festival]

1994-03-19 … Edmonton, AB — Famous Players’ Paramount [midnight (THX)

1994-04-09 … Calgary, AB — Famous Players’ Palliser Square Twin [midnight]

1995-02-25 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (2 days) [70mm festival]

1996-05-15 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (5 days) [70mm festival]

1996-07-05 … Dallas, TX — GCC’s Northpark West Twin [Fri-Sat lateshow] (THX)

1996-07-11 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (4 days) [70mm festival]

1996-09-06 … Chicago, IL — Navy Pier IMAX (2 days) [latenight series]

1996-12-26 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (5 days) [70mm festival]

1997-02-21 … Los Angeles, CA — Mann’s Plaza [Fri-Sat-Sun midnight]

1997-08-22 … Chicago, IL — Navy Pier IMAX (1) [latenight series]

1997-10-08 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (3 days) [70mm festival]

1998-05-22 … Chicago, IL — Navy Pier IMAX (1) [latenight series]

1998-08-21 … Chicago, IL — Navy Pier IMAX (1) [latenight series]

1998-09-04 … Indianapolis, IN — White River State Park IMAX (10 days) [Planet Hollywood Film Festival]

1998-12-26 … Toronto, ON — Cinesphere (5 days) [70mm festival]

1999-04-02 … Los Angeles, CA — Mann’s Plaza [Fri-Sat-Sun midnight]

1999-12-?? … Addison, TX — Granada Prestonwood 5 [70mm series]

2000-05-19 … Baltimore, MD — Durkee’s Senator (2 days)

2000-07-15 … Austin, TX — Paramount (2 days) [70mm festival]

2002-03-01 … Columbia Heights, MN — Heights [70mm series]

2007-05-05 … Los Angeles, CA — AMPAS’ Linwood Dunn*

2007-10-07 … Seattle, WA — Cinerama [70mm fest]

2007-10-09 … Seattle, WA — Cinerama [70mm fest]

* Screened in 35mm with interlocked six-track audio during the Sound Behind the Image series

2008-12-21 … Los Angeles, CA — Laemmle’s Royal [70th anniversary festival]

2011-07-28 … Santa Monica, CA — Aero [70mm series]

2012-10-25 … Santa Monica, CA — Aero [Tony Scott tribute; w/ “Days of Thunder”]

2016-05-27 … Columbus, OH — Gateway Film Center 8

2017-07-01 … Los Angeles, CA — Egyptian (canceled)

2017-07-05 … Los Angeles, CA — Egyptian

2017-07-07 … Chicago, IL — Music Box [70mm festival]

2017-07-12 … Chicago, IL — Music Box [70mm festival]

2017-08-30 … Seattle, WA — Cinerama [70mm festival]

2017-09-04 … Seattle, WA — Cinerama [70mm festival]

2017-09-27 … Somerville, MA — Somerville 5 [70mm & Widescreen festival]

2018-12-08 … Portland, OR — Hollywood [70mm series]

2022-08-27 … New York, NY — Museum of the Moving Image [canceled]

2022-08-28 … New York, NY — Museum of the Moving Image [canceled]

2022-09-02 … New York, NY — Museum of the Moving Image [canceled]

2022-09-04 … New York, NY — Museum of the Moving Image [canceled]

2023-09-04 … New York, NY — Paris [70mm festival]

2024-07-12 … Santa Monica, CA — Aero [70mm festival; w/ “Days of Thunder”]

The information in this article was principally referenced from film industry trade publications, regional newspaper promotion, print enclosures, TAP records, Dolby records, etc. Special thanks to David Ayers, Don Beelik, Mark Campbell, Bill Kallay, Bill Kretzel, Mark Lensenmayer, Stan Malone, Tim O’Neill, Joe Oenthal, and an extra special thank-you to all of the librarians who helped with this project. This article is based upon a previously-published article at TheDigitalBits.com

(https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/history-legacy--showmanship/mighty-wings-remembering-top-gun-30th).

International 70mm presentations of this title have not been accounted for in this article.

https://in70mm.com/presents/1963_blow_up/titel/t/top_gun/index.htm

juliezhou · Guru

A SAMPLING OF MOVIE REVIEWER QUOTES

“No doubt about it: Top Gun is going to be the hit that The Right Stuff should have been. They are not in the same class of films, but this much must be said: The aerial sequences in Top Gun are as thrilling—while remaining coherent—as any ever put on film.” — Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune

“A lot of people are going to want to fly Navy jets by the end of the summer, because Top Gun may be the best military recruiting film ever made.” — Donald Porter, Ogden Standard-Examiner

“Top Gun is a male bonding adventure movie that’s both exciting and disturbing, mind-boggling and vacuous…. Measuring the movie against its model—Hawks’ air films—you can see the difference between a great director making his movies breathe, and a superproduction that depends on action and hardware. Top Gun is an empty-headed technological marvel. The actors—especially Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer and Meg Ryan—are good, but only connect as archetypes. The emotion heats up only when the planes are flying. (If Howard Hughes were alive, he might watch Top Gun more times than Ice Station Zebra.)” — Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times

“Top Gun is a visual stunner. I think its chief entertainment value lies in protracted photographic excitement—simply the best aerial photography seen in the jet age…. To get the full aerial photo effects of Top Gun, you ought to catch it at a theater where it’s playing in 70mm with full-crank sound. That way you’ll feel like you’re inside a 100-watt stereo set that is inside a video game that is on a roller coaster.” — Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle

“There hasn’t been such a star-making role for a male performer since John Travolta primped, posed and pranced his way to the top in Saturday Night Fever. Cruise, who has played adolescents until now, is given the full treatment in Top Gun. The camera caresses him, in beaming close-ups of his face and body, and he responds to its overtures with the kind of charismatic narcissism that only a male sex symbol can muster.” — George Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Paramount’s Top Gun is precisely the kind of slick, commercial, well-crafted, general-audience blockbuster the other major studios have been looking for all year, and it will probably still be filling Paramount’s coffers by year’s end. The movie makes everyone in it look good, but it’s particularly a triumph for its director, Tony Scott, who was undeservedly trashed by most critics for his stylish first film, The Hunger.” — John Hartl, The Seattle Times

“The dogfights are absolutely the best since Clint Eastwood’s electrifying aerial scenes in Firefox. But look out for the scenes where the people talk to one another.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

“[Top Gun] resembles a sparkling, shining replica of a 1940s John Wayne Flying Seabees-Flying Tigers-Flying Leathernecks movie, updated to the mid-1980s. Judging from the audience reaction to several sneak previews of the film, Top Gun may be exactly what audiences want. Whatever that says about today’s audiences, it augurs well for the picture’s financial fate.” — Philip Wuntch, The Dallas Morning News

“A trite, predictable script, weak on characterization, draws commensurate performances from Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. Some nice aerial photography and military lingo dialogue lend authenticity—but the film needs more than that.” — Catharine Rambeau, Detroit Free Press

“Two hours of pure pow!” — Peter Travers, People

“Top Gun is a summer film in the expected form, a wild visceral ride—especially in 70mm. This is as old-fashioned as they come, a John Wayne military shoot-’em-up in the sky, with aerial dogfights [that] are genuinely thrilling. On the ground, however, Top Gun misfires. Or crash-lands. The problem is an unconvincing romance and an overly contrived plotline, apparently aiming for the audience that made An Officer and a Gentleman a hit.” — Christopher Hicks, (Salt Lake City) Deseret News

“Top Gun has ‘big summer hit’ written all over it.” — Rob Salem, Toronto Star

“This movie seems determined to break the sound barrier; if it isn’t the roar of the jets, it’s the roar of Maverick’s motorcycle, and when that subsides, there’s always the clamor of the music.” — Walter Goodman, The New York Times

“Top Gun is top drawer, top dog, tops!” — Joel Siegel, ABC-TV

“If you’ve ever fantasized about flying at twice the speed of sound, tumbling through clouds and banking against the stratosphere, then Top Gun is the daredevil film for you. Or if you simply like good cinema—enhanced by wide-film technology, superior sound recording and plane-mounted camerawork—Top Gun is the solid drama you crave.” — Shirley Jinkins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Top Gun has Rambo’s military core without any of its political effluvia. When Top Gun becomes successful, as presumably it will, we will see that war movies succeed because they are dramatic, not political.” — David Brooks, The Washington Times

“Top Gun is Flashdance in the skies.” — Digby Diehl, CBS-TV

“Not since Duke Wayne took the sands of Iwo Jima has Hollywood produced a more gung-ho invitation to join the military than Top Gun. I saw the film in the company of several hundred teen-age boys who whooped, hollered, cheered and applauded throughout, and then, no doubt, headed straight to the nearest Navy recruitment center to sign up for life.” — Michael Burkett, The (Santa Ana) Orange County Register

https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/history-legacy--showmanship/mighty-wings-remembering-top-gun-30th

The cast & crew of Top Gun

Mann's Chinese Theater

juliezhou · Guru

35 Years On, Why I've Never Lost That Loving Feeling For 'Top Gun'

May 14, 2021

Sean Burns

I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that the film I’d been most looking forward to seeing on a big screen post-vax was the extraordinarily belated sequel “Top Gun: Maverick,” which after three decades of anticipation and two years of release date delays had finally been scheduled to open this coming Fourth of July weekend. After all, what could be a more symbolically appropriate way to rally back from quarantine than an Independence Day IMAX screening of a gaudy, all-American extravaganza that takes place in an alternate universe where the Navy lets 58-year-old men fly fighter jets? Alas, citing concerns with international vaccine rollouts, Paramount moved the movie once again, this time to the week before Thanksgiving — as if anyone wants to watch people play beach volleyball in November.

In the meantime we’ll have to make do with the original, I guess. That’s right, “Top Gun” is roaring back to your local AMC theaters this weekend to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the film’s release, as well as something called “Top Gun Day,” which is one of those meaningless memetic holidays people invent as an excuse to talk about stuff they like on the internet. (Hilariously enough, “Top Gun Day” falls a few days before the film’s actual May 16 release date because the guys who came up with it made a typo on their merchandise designs.) Remastered in Dolby Vision and Atmos for this reissue, the 1986 movie was also recently made available in a new 4K UltraHD Blu-ray edition, which of course I ran out and bought right away because I find “Top Gun” to be politically repellant, logically incomprehensible and aesthetically irresistible. It’s a big, dumb movie that was probably bad for the world, and it’s also totally awesome.

Released six months after Rocky Balboa won the Cold War by defeating Ivan Drago in the ring, “Top Gun” offered an even more ecstatic escape into triumphalist, Reagan-era revisionism, removing all the blood, death and despair from combat — replaced by backlit beefcake shots and rah-rah aspirational recruiting mottos about being the best of the best. These clean-cut, freshly scrubbed flyboys weren’t haunted war criminals like John Rambo, they’re upbeat athletes aspiring to excellence. “Top Gun” might be framed around the military, but it’s a sports movie through and through. The screenwriters even invented a fake trophy competition and added a locker room to the Navy’s elite Fighter Weapons School as a way of reassuring audiences that all this war stuff is just fun and games.

Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer were hot off of “Flashdance” and “Beverly Hills Cop,” but their stroke of genius here was hiring brash British ad man Tony Scott to direct. A Royal College of Art graduate who’d crashed and burned in Hollywood a few years earlier with his inscrutably esoteric lesbian vampire movie “The Hunger,” Scott scored the “Top Gun” gig thanks to a car commercial he’d helmed in which a jet plane races a Saab. The kind of blustery, larger-than-life figure one rarely finds in the film industry anymore, Tony Scott was almost always attired in short shorts and a safari vest, puffing on a cigar beneath an omnipresent pink baseball cap. Few filmmakers from the era were so adept at exulting in their own ridiculousness, which made him the ideal director for “Top Gun.”

Scott supposedly threw a book of Bruce Weber photographs onto Bruckheimer’s desk and announced that’s what the movie was going to look like. To call “Top Gun” over-stylized would be an egregious understatement, as every angle is finessed with smoke machines and soft gel lights to a degree of giddy absurdity. Witness instructor Kelly McGillis’ entrance into the cadets’ class, filmed low and from behind to show off her seamed stockings and stiletto pumps. The Navy made their actual academy classrooms available for filming, but of course, Scott found them dreadfully boring and instead staged the lessons in a sunlit hangar in front of an F-15 and a gargantuan American flag. (I love the lonely chalkboard shunted off to the side.) Also, her lipstick.

Every scene of “Top Gun” is shot and cut like a commercial — all shimmering sunsets and golden magic hours with cool motorcycles and vintage cars. People wear heavy leather bomber jackets in the San Diego summer simply because they look so great in them. Everyone in this movie is always glistening for some reason, and any given frame could be put on a poster. Characters speak almost exclusively in catch-phrases and slogans they repeat back to each other later for applause cues and the soundtrack is wall-to-wall chart toppers and classic oldies. (Note the mercenary brilliance of the monologue during which Maverick talks about his mother’s favorite song, never mentioning the title nor the artist to give the filmmakers maximum leeway when negotiating the movie's music rights.) “Top Gun” looks and sounds like the longest advertisement you’ve ever seen, but what exactly is it supposed to be selling?

The Navy famously set up recruiting tables in theater lobbies, no doubt enlisting an entire generation of cadets disappointed to discover that their classes were taught indoors and never by Kelly McGillis. It’s an aesthetically jingoistic film according to the flattering photography of flags and uniforms, with still unparalleled aerial footage of these majestic silver phallic symbols whizzing around at the speed of sound. Yet the screenplay is clear as mud when it comes to cryptically exonerating Maverick’s deceased dad for I think maybe bombing Cambodia, and nobody’s ever been really sure if it ends with our boys starting World War III. “Top Gun” clearly hasn’t the slightest interest in — nor any ideas about — the problematic geopolitics it keeps stumbling over, because the movie is really just selling swagger, sunglasses and speed. Well, all those things and also Tom Cruise, who in the span of these 109 minutes went from a promising young dork dancing in his underwear in “Risky Business” to an instant American icon.

I’ve always considered Cruise one of our most underrated actors, but between us, he’s not very good in “Top Gun.” He still hadn’t learned how to modulate his voice yet and falls back on that jerky smirk far too often, especially in the chemistry-free scenes he spends sexually harassing Kelly McGillis. Of course, none of this matters because Scott and cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball frame and light Tom Cruise as a modern-day deity, embodying all the ****y aspirations of America’s recently restored confidence whenever he's putting on a pair of aviators. His physicality is extraordinary, a diminutive god among taller, lesser men. Characters are constantly telling Maverick how amazing he is, and even when Maverick isn’t in a scene people only talk about Maverick. I saw “Top Gun” in the theater when I was 11 years old — one of the neighborhood kids and I were thwarted in our efforts to sneak into Sylvester Stallone’s grisly vigilante cop movie “Cobra” so we had to settle for this PG alternative — and even though the film hadn’t been our first choice for that particular afternoon, when it was over we both wanted to be Maverick.

“Top Gun” didn’t have a massive opening the way blockbusters do today, and it actually got clobbered that Memorial Day weekend by competitors “Cobra” and “Poltergeist II: The Other Side.” But the movie stuck around all summer, thanks to repeat viewings and rapturous word of mouth, not to mention a smash soundtrack album that kept cranking out hits. The film’s Oscar-winning love theme “Take My Breath Away” remains composer Giorgio Moroder's towering masterpiece, with Berlin vocalist Terri Nunn cooing over billowy synth bubbles that make the world feel like it’s moving in dreamy slow-motion every time you hear it. 1980s soundtrack staple Kenny Loggins was a last-minute replacement for the group Toto on the Moroder-penned kickoff track “Danger Zone,” and the singer later confessed that his bizarre enunciation of the title’s two words was a feeble attempt to mimic the inimitable accent of his musical hero, Tina Turner. (This is one of those things that once you notice, you will never be able to unhear it. You're welcome.) Even Harold Faltermeyer’s instrumental “Top Gun Anthem” got radio airplay, as this summer movie lingered in the box office top 10 until almost Thanksgiving, when it finally began to fade from theaters, presumably because nobody wants to watch people play beach volleyball in November.

Ah yes, about that volleyball scene. Every generation thinks they’re the first to discover the hilarious homoeroticism of “Top Gun,” a subject dissected at amusing length by Quentin Tarantino in the otherwise forgotten 1994 rom-com “Sleep With Me.” It’s no stretch to say that Cruise has considerably less chemistry with Kelly McGillis than he does with flyboy rival Val Kilmer, the two literally snapping at each other half-naked in their fictitious locker room. (When I spoke to Kilmer before the Boston Film Festival screening of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" back in 2005, he laughed and acknowledged "it was recently pointed out to me that I'm really f---ing gay in that movie." Then he jokingly accused Tom Cruise of intentionally sabotaging all the volleyball shots in which Val looked hotter.) During an amusing archival interview during one of the new Blu-ray’s generous supplements, Scott admits he “had no vision” for the volleyball game, which was requested by the producers to once again emphasize that this was a sports movie and not a war film. So Scott shrugged and “slicked the boys up with baby oil "and "shot it like a softcore porno.”

None of this went unremarked upon at the time. Critic J. Hoberman’s Village Voice review was titled “Phallus in Wonderland,” and he drew angry letters from regular readers after writing, “the screen is so packed with streamlined planes and heat-seeking missiles, wagging forefingers and upright thumbs that, had Freud lived to see it, he might be excused for thinking ‘Top Gun’ an avant-garde representation of Saturday night at the Saint Marks Baths.” (Well, the movie was designed to look like a book of Bruce Weber photographs, after all.) At an early screening for midwestern exhibitors, it was sheepishly suggested that maybe they should beef up the hetero love story a little bit?

Kelly McGillis and Tom Cruise in "Top Gun." (Courtesy Paramount Pictures)

So two new scenes were hastily shot scant days before the release, while the film was already being mixed. In that bit with Maverick and McGillis in the elevator, the actress is wearing a baseball cap because it was now months later and her hair no longer matched the character’s. Meanwhile, Cruise’s coiffure is all slicked down and soaking wet because by then he was busy shooting Scorsese’s “The Color of Money,” for which he’d grown out a formidable pompadour. Scott was savvy enough to know we’d never stop to ask why Maverick might be stepping into a crowded elevator after just getting out of the shower, much as he knew we wouldn’t care about these characters’ mismatched haircuts and bad wigs during their later sex scene that, to preserve a PG rating, was restricted to the memorably acrobatic intertwining of backlit tongues. (“We only had time to set up one light,” cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball sighs defensively on the DVD.)

Ever-underrated, Tony Scott went on to helm meathead masterpieces like “The Last Boy Scout,” “True Romance,” “Crimson Tide” and his fantastic final film, “Unstoppable.” Scott was for so long a lowbrow pariah in critical circles, it’s been enormously gratifying in recent years to watch young writers latching onto his work, citing Scott’s formal innovations as the trailblazer in a school that’s come to be called “vulgar auteurism.” His big brother Ridley might have been more respectable and won Oscars for his visionary science-fiction pictures and humorless historical epics, but I always preferred Tony’s lowbrow laughs and his sense of what fun, silly things these big blockbusters could be. (To my knowledge, he's still the only director who has his entire filmography engraved upon his headstone.)

One of my dearest moviegoing memories was watching “Top Gun” at the Somerville Theatre’s 70mm festival back in 2017, with a six-track magnetic soundtrack that shook the bloody walls and a loud, rowdy crowd that was the exact, perfect level of drunk for the occasion. Everybody was halfway between mocking the movie and adoring it — applauding every iconically absurd line. Seen up close and so massively large, there’s no mistaking “Top Gun” is the work of a disgruntled British art student having a bit of a laugh about all this admittedly awesome American nonsense. What makes the film so much fun is that you’re invited to share it with him.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/05/14/top-gun-35-years-tony-scott-tom-cruise