Top Gun - Years later
Saw on reddit the other day that Tom Cruise confirmed the plans for Top Gun 2. That in itself would have made a great banner story, but it kept getting better. On the comments section, Val Kilmer (Iceman) kept posting comments praising his fellow cast members and showing unbridled enthusiasm for joining the sequel.
For those who have been idiot enough to still visit this site, which was last active 2 years ago but practically dead for over 10 years now, Top Gun was an inspiration of sorts for yours truly. Loved the testosterone content - the volatile mix of Ray-Ban sunglasses, bomber jackets, monster motorcycles, and the thought of being a pilot in the most competitive flight school in the world. Oh yeah and that volleyball scene...Small wonder that the application rate to join the US Navy (specifically Naval Aviators) jumped to a record 500% after the movie.
But I digress. This movie gave me my icemanjl33 moniker, although when in company with people seemingly nerdier than i am, would point out the Iceman character in X-Men (Bobby Drake), althugh honestly I have little idea who he is or what he does. It's Mr Iceman - Tom Kazansky. Ice-cold. As Goose eloquently puts it:"It's the way he flies, ice cold, no mistakes. He wears you down, you get bored, frustrated, do something stupid and he's got ya."
The movies didn't show much about Iceman, instead preferring to focus on the lead character and injecting a love angle between Maverick and Kelly McGillis, who seems better suited with the call sign Cougar rather than the real Cougar. What we did get from the motion picture was that Iceman was always in the lead and that Maverick was chasing him the entire class, and that he got his instructor as much as they got him. Also, he would mysteriously appear clad only in a towel to give Maverick unsolicited advice.
In contrast, Maverick was Maverick. He scrapped, he bent the rules, he got the girl, and he seemed cooler than way everybody else.
So why the fuck did I prefer Iceman when Maverick was clearly the hero of the story?
I wanted to be Iceman more than I wanted to be Maverick, who while being a genius, is impulsively dangerous and relies on instinct too much. Iceman seems to prefer no-nonsense, surgical precision, stuff that would bore you out of flight school or any other school. Most importantly, he got the job done. Contrast this to our dear Pete Mitchell, who tries so hard to gain attention when just doing his job the right should've done that. Cost him a RIO, and the Top Gun trophy, but in the end he got the job he wanted, train other pilots to be as recklessly intuitive as he is.
Through the years, I realized I had more in common with Maverick than Iceman. Growing up, I saw firsthand the advantages of a disciplined work system versus the gung-ho approach of flying by the seat of your pants. The difference between the two? Guaranteed success over the long run versus scraping by. Guess which one would help a real world career. Objection! Maverick also paid his dues, he wouldn't be there if he didn't work hard to get into school and progress at the top 1% of his class. But did he? Cougar was number 1, and through a stroke of PTSD did Maverick even get his dream shot.
In effect, Ice is the type I wanted to be. Eyes on the prize, always done with his homework, and still manages to learn from his experiences. Even the words he says to Maverick were made only after careful thought (check his "I'm sorry about Goose" lines where he literally composes what he wanted to say), and stayed cool even in combat when he was surreptitiously abandoned by both Hollywood (due to a missile hit early on) and Maverick (second thoughts).
Let's pose the question again: If you were in battle, who would you want on your side? Iceman hands down. Plus on hindsight maverickjl33@yahoo.com seems a bit pretentious than my already pretentious online persona.
As a final note: Ruthless Reviews writer Alex K, in his excellent essay on why Iceman was misunderstood (http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/11990/the-misunderstood-iceman/), sums it up perfectly: "Iceman is the hero we should want, but Maverick is the hero we deserve."
For those who have been idiot enough to still visit this site, which was last active 2 years ago but practically dead for over 10 years now, Top Gun was an inspiration of sorts for yours truly. Loved the testosterone content - the volatile mix of Ray-Ban sunglasses, bomber jackets, monster motorcycles, and the thought of being a pilot in the most competitive flight school in the world. Oh yeah and that volleyball scene...Small wonder that the application rate to join the US Navy (specifically Naval Aviators) jumped to a record 500% after the movie.
But I digress. This movie gave me my icemanjl33 moniker, although when in company with people seemingly nerdier than i am, would point out the Iceman character in X-Men (Bobby Drake), althugh honestly I have little idea who he is or what he does. It's Mr Iceman - Tom Kazansky. Ice-cold. As Goose eloquently puts it:"It's the way he flies, ice cold, no mistakes. He wears you down, you get bored, frustrated, do something stupid and he's got ya."
The movies didn't show much about Iceman, instead preferring to focus on the lead character and injecting a love angle between Maverick and Kelly McGillis, who seems better suited with the call sign Cougar rather than the real Cougar. What we did get from the motion picture was that Iceman was always in the lead and that Maverick was chasing him the entire class, and that he got his instructor as much as they got him. Also, he would mysteriously appear clad only in a towel to give Maverick unsolicited advice.
In contrast, Maverick was Maverick. He scrapped, he bent the rules, he got the girl, and he seemed cooler than way everybody else.
So why the fuck did I prefer Iceman when Maverick was clearly the hero of the story?
I wanted to be Iceman more than I wanted to be Maverick, who while being a genius, is impulsively dangerous and relies on instinct too much. Iceman seems to prefer no-nonsense, surgical precision, stuff that would bore you out of flight school or any other school. Most importantly, he got the job done. Contrast this to our dear Pete Mitchell, who tries so hard to gain attention when just doing his job the right should've done that. Cost him a RIO, and the Top Gun trophy, but in the end he got the job he wanted, train other pilots to be as recklessly intuitive as he is.
Through the years, I realized I had more in common with Maverick than Iceman. Growing up, I saw firsthand the advantages of a disciplined work system versus the gung-ho approach of flying by the seat of your pants. The difference between the two? Guaranteed success over the long run versus scraping by. Guess which one would help a real world career. Objection! Maverick also paid his dues, he wouldn't be there if he didn't work hard to get into school and progress at the top 1% of his class. But did he? Cougar was number 1, and through a stroke of PTSD did Maverick even get his dream shot.
In effect, Ice is the type I wanted to be. Eyes on the prize, always done with his homework, and still manages to learn from his experiences. Even the words he says to Maverick were made only after careful thought (check his "I'm sorry about Goose" lines where he literally composes what he wanted to say), and stayed cool even in combat when he was surreptitiously abandoned by both Hollywood (due to a missile hit early on) and Maverick (second thoughts).
As a final note: Ruthless Reviews writer Alex K, in his excellent essay on why Iceman was misunderstood (http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/11990/the-misunderstood-iceman/), sums it up perfectly: "Iceman is the hero we should want, but Maverick is the hero we deserve."
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