WE REMEMBER TONY SCOTT - AND I THINK I REMEMBER SOMETHING ELSE : "TOP GUN"

Ok, Mom? (Ok, this is a small aside concerning the film to my Mom – of course you can read it, it wouldn’t be on the blog otherwise) Mom? Yeah, do you remember I kept asking you a couple of months back about a series concerning pilots? Something I watched when I was very small, about pilots and a flying school, and you hadn’t the foggiest idea what I was talking about? I’m semi convinced this is it. You will no doubt point out, as you are a very observant woman, that this is not a series but a film. I was very small (I mean, the date for Top Gun fits, I’d be three – or a tiny bit older maybe as it was on TV) so maybe my sense of time was a bit warped back then, what can I say? And I mean, if it wasn’t this it was something very, very similar to this. Do try and check it out and see if it reminds you of anything, I’m getting a tad obsessed with it…

Ehm… Well we all have our hang-ups in life, what can I say? Ok, so this is yet another little tribute looking back at the work of the late great Tony Scott. I will, over the course of the next couple of weeks, try and go through his major works and let you know how I progress. I have a feeling you’ll be hearing a lot of him if Top Gun is anything to go by. Like I said above, it’s either something I watched and loved as a child or very, very similar to something I watched and loved as a child and what can I say… As an adult, I have watched it and once again LOVED it. I mean no wonder there’s a “Top Gun day” (May the 13^th). I mean, I’m no great fan of such “days” but I might change my profile photo for it or something next year. Seriously.

God that was one heck of a sidetrack. So what’s the darn film about? Well, Top Gun, the opening credits inform us, is a flight school for the best of the best of pilots from the U.S. army. The aim of the school is to teach these elite pilots the lost art of dogfighting. The film takes place in 1986 – or the mid to late ‘80s at any rate – so the Cold War is still continuing so actual enemy encounters are both real and frequent. ‘Maverick’(a rather young and dishy Tom Cruise) is a hot headed, hot shot pilot. He flies well but recklessly, gets into Top Gun by the skin of this teeth and for all his confidence, he still has a lot to learn about life and flying. For the flying, there really is no better place than Top Gun. As for life, well, the beautiful civilian contractor working in the school as an instructor may have a thing or two to teach him…

Now this, this is the kind of feel-good movie I love. There is steaming romance and passion, there is action and adventure… There is just enough adrenaline that you actually hop up and down in your seat but deep down you’re pretty sure the main characters will turn out alright in the end. That being said, it isn’t some “cliché” either. I mean think about it – and I was actually talking to my cousin about this the other day – how many of us are actually interested in planes? Oh I know you enthusiasts are out there and I’m more than fine with it, but my point is for the most of us, unless we’re undertaking international travel, planes are background noise. I mean, there’s a lot of it (noise) but you get what I mean. It takes quite something to make a film so appealing about a rather specialist subject that you actually get caught up in complex technical manoeuvers and explanations. Before that panics you, don’t let it. That’s precisely the point I’m trying to make. Firstly, I mean yes they’re technical but not so much that a layman (like me) couldn’t follow it. Secondly, you’re so caught up in the film that you’re basically highly motivated to understand it. So you do. If you see what I mean. And who can forget the Oscar ®winning song that accompanies Maverick and “Charlie” s romance, “Take My Breath Away”? This is the stuff legends are made of boys and girls. And it just so happens that Tony Scott is a legend. For good reason.

P.S. I have an idea. I know you guys aren’t that hot on comments – which is fair enough, especially if you’re kind enough to return week after week to read my opinions on films. But maybe, if you remember this, you can help me out. I’m trying to remember the name of a TV series I watched when I was very young. It was similar to Top Gun, eerily similar, but I’m not sure that this is it. It was about flying school and fighter pilots. Possibly set in WWII but I don’t remember it that clearly. Probably American or possibly British in origin, it would have aired around the mid to late’80s or possibly very early ‘90s but I’d put my money on it being mid to late’80s. I LOVED it when I was a child. I’m convinced it’s real but my mother smiles benignly and says “you had such an active imagination as a child” when I mention it (yes, it has reached that point). I know it’s not a lot to go on (hence I can’t even begin to figure out how and where to figure out its name), but  if anyone knows what I’m talking about PLEASE get in touch. Please… :S

IN MEMORIAM OF TONY SCOTT : "DEJA VU"

Well, I would be no kind of cinema lover if the (newly) late Tony Scott didn’t get a mention in the blog sometime soon now would I? Think what you will personally of Tony Scott, the man was one of the greats. He is one of those rare gems who can actually walk the thin line between art pieces and popular cinema (I think we’re all in agreement that these are two totally different things, right? Right. ). Now, for some, this means that Tony Scott’s films were neither one thing nor the other, making him sort of a Jack of all trades  / master of none kinda guy. I think those who support that idea need to think twice about that statement. If you’re a creative person, it is hard enough, on some level, to constrain yourself to the “rules” of classical filmmaking (Oh come on, you DO know what I mean). But then again if you adhere too closely, chances are you’re going to be able to pay your rent and all that but just fade away as a filmmaker. It is notoriously hard to show originality without going off on a tangent. It is, as I said a very fine line. And Tony Scott, God rest his soul, was an artist and an entertainer who was able to revolutionize classic genres (notably the action film) AND create perfect art pieces at the same time.  I strongly feel that this film was one of his best, so here it is. 

Our story starts in New Orleans, when a ferry carrying the crew and families of a navy vessel is blown up. Among the first on the scene, is BATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is among the first on the scene.  But if you thought all that can be done at that point is piece together the clues left behind to catch the culprits, you are mistaken. There may actually be a way to save them. Carlin learns this when he becomes attached to an as yet experimental FBI unit. The methods they use are dangerous and even the most brilliant scientists are unsure as to the full capacities of their machinery but the lives of hundreds are at stake. And among those hundreds is the woman Doug has fallen in love with. Without ever having met her… I would like to close my summary with the film’s tagline, which I find particularly poignant: “If you thought it was just a trick of the mind, prepare yourself for the truth”…

And if at this point, you’re going “Oh, so what, they’ve invented time travel” err, no. It’s a tad more complicated than that. What the heck do I mean by that? You’re simply going to have to watch the film and find out. First of all, respect for Tony Scott. In the first place, the film is a class A action film. All the ingredients are there, charismatic hero, wild chase sequences, the pyrotechnics, special effects… Every box ticked. Then, there’s the sci-fi part of it. Now, like I said, it’s not just about sending agents back in time “Terminator” style. It’s more complicated than that. And Scott does NOT just gloss over the explanation. He actually explains it. I mean, we watched the film as a group, there were moments (more than one – and we’re all postgraduate students by the way) where serious explanations to the question of “what just happened??” were necessary. So it’s a genuine, serious and intelligent sci-fi movie too. And on top of that of course, there is the romantic angle. And I mean, first of all , come on peeps, it’s love. That’s NEVER a cliché. Secondly, Denzel Washington and Paula Patton (who you may remember from such films as Ghost Protocol and Precious amongst other things) are spot on with the chemistry. For one minute I want you to now stop and think about how hard it is to take three almost completely unrelated genres (not two, three. Two might work – it usually does. Three is where it gets complicated) and mix them in such a way that the result is smooth, classy and nail-bitingly, arm-of-the-chair grippingly exciting. Just “sticking them together” simply does not work out. You have to watch this one to know what I mean.