35 Years Later, Top Gun And Its Epic Soundtrack Still Takes Our Breath Away

Paramount Pictures

Top Gun may be 35 years old, but my playlist is still a portal to the Danger Zone; a soundtrack of unmistakable, eternal super-bangers. 

All it takes is Harold Faltermeyer’s opening ‘dum’ of a tubular bell. It’s like the warmth of a heated car seat in winter, or the first sip of a pint. The smile creeping across my face only grows wider as the credits outline the plot.

‘On March 3, 1969, the United States Navy established an elite school for the top one percent of its pilots. It’s purpose was to teach the lost art of aerial combat and to insure that the handful of men who graduated were the best fighter pilots in the world.’

‘Today, the Navy calls it Fighter Weapons School. The flyers call it…’ with the music rising, ‘Top Gun.’ Tingling in the balls, butterflies in the stomach.

For the next couple of minutes, we watch Jeffrey L. Kimball’s sickeningly cool photography of air carrier silhouettes. Just as we think the theme is going to ramp up, the movie shifts gear on take-off with a skull-rocking riff of guitar and synth – it’s Kenny Loggins time, baby. ‘Revvin’ up your engine, listen to her howlin’ roar…’

What can be said about Top Gun? While not the debut of Tony Scott – man, cinema is a worse place without him – it was his second feature, and the one to propel him into Hollywood legend and beyond. Nor was it the first performance from Tom Cruise, but after charismatic turns in The Outsiders, Risky Business and Legend, some would argue Maverick is his most defining role. It’s not a surprise to see his call sign light up the sequel’s title.

Paramount Pictures

The film itself is really rather simple: boy meets girl while battling a rival – only it’s not for the romance, it’s for the skies. There’s also Goose (Anthony Edwards), his ill-fated best bud with one of the best moments in the movie with Meg Ryan. ‘Take me to bed or lose me forever,’ she says. ‘Show me the way, honey,’ he replies.

But that isn’t the biggest takeaway, nor are the high-octane flight sequences with planes ripping through the sky like Mjölnir, the mesmerising homoeroticism or the oft-quoted one-liners, like ‘Son, your ego is writing cheques your body can’t cash.’ It’s the music.

Paramount Pictures

Before the film began production, Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson sent the script to Faltermeyer, who went on to craft Mighty Wings and the Top Gun Anthem. When Maverick and Iceman (Val Kilmer) finally gain each other’s approval, it’s transcendental, pulsing from the chest into a full-body fist-pump. It’s perfect for the spirit of the movie and the era.

There are few blockbusters so synonymous with as many tracks: you can’t hear Great Balls of Fire without Maverick and Goose’s blaring it out on the piano; cheesy pick-up scenes just aren’t the same without the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling sung by Bud-guzzling aviators; and is there any greater, hilariously on-the-nose sporting scene than topless volley ball to the tune of Playing With The Boys?

Danger Zone could be argued as the victor, but the title surely goes to Take My Breath Away, performed by Berlin and written by movie maestro Giorgio Moroder. Seriously, the man’s won three Oscars: one for Best Original Score for Midnight Express; and two Best Original Song awards for Flashdance‘s What a Feeling and his Top Gun power ballad.

It topped the charts all across the world, becoming certified gold in the US, UK, Canada, France and Portugal. Even Moroder says it’s the song he’s most proud of producing.

There’s a reason that electric motif plays throughout the movie during scenes between Cruise and Kelly McGillis; while deeply romantic and elegiac, it’s infectious. Play it around any fan of Top Gun and watch their eyes gently close in bliss. If you’re going to watch the Tony Scott School of Sex Scenes With a Lot of Tongue, do it with Take My Breath Away.

The movie may be jingoistic and silly, the loved-up pair may chew down on some corny lines, but it’s stood the test of time. The notion of ‘guy movies’ is outdated, but it remains a rite of passage for guys living with one another (writing this as someone who’s introduced two different flatmates to Top Gun, and they’ve loved it).

It dates back to a time when music was just as important as the movie itself. Bruckheimer and Simpson say the mega-bucks synergy and essentially enabled one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. Tracks could be used to sell a film as much as a trailer; Together in Electric Dreams, also produced by Moroder, is another prime example.

Paramount Pictures

Peruse the Oscar winners and nominees of the 80s: Fame, 9-5, Up Where We Belong, Eye of the Tiger, Footloose, Ghostbusters, The Power of Love, Up Where We Belong, (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, plus the aforementioned What a Feeling and Take My Breath Away. It’s more than the sound of a generation; it’s every generation since.

Beyond that decade, the category became the land of Disney and honey. Sure, there’s been some incredible songs – Titanic’s My Heart Will Go On, Skyfall’s titular theme, 8 Mile’s Lose Yourself and most notably, A Star Is Born‘s entire album – but the relationship between the two mediums is a shadow of itself.

Maybe we’ll return to a phase of cinema where a movie doesn’t need be a musical or animated to dominate the airwaves. Or, maybe, we’ll have to resort to Top Gun and its brethren of classics for that loving feeling. One thing’s certain: we’ve still got the need… for speed.

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from UNILAD https://www.unilad.co.uk/featured/35-years-later-top-gun-and-its-epic-soundtrack-still-takes-our-breath-away/
By Cameron Frew May 16, 2021 at 09:39PM