ParamountThis is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obssed, wrten by senr entertament reporter Kev Fallon. To receive the full newsletter your box each week, sign up for week:A very gay even gayer movie!A very gay even gayer vio!The gayt of them all. (Happy Pri Month!)Actually, Top Gun: Maverick Is the Gayt Thg This WeekLast weekend, I ma a gay pilgrimage of my own. I took my sad ltle self to the nearby Alamo Draf
Contents:
- JERRY BCKHEIMER WEIGHS ON TARANTO’S ‘TOP GUN’ GAY FILM MONOLOGUE: ‘A COMPLIMENT’
- HOW TOP GUN BEME A GAY CLASSIC
- TOP GUN: IS THERE REALLY A GAY SUBTEXT? WE ASKED THE WRER
- ‘TOP GUN: MAVERICK’ IS ACTUALLY THE GAYT MOVIE OF THE YEAR
- TOP GUN: WHY TOM CISE'S FLYG ACTNER IS AN UNTENTNAL GAY CLASSIC
- TOP GUN PRODUCER FLATTERED BY TARANTO’S MONOLOGUE ABOUT THE FILM’S GAY SUBTEXT
JERRY BCKHEIMER WEIGHS ON TARANTO’S ‘TOP GUN’ GAY FILM MONOLOGUE: ‘A COMPLIMENT’
Insane jet stunts and some good old fashned Amerin patrtism — that’s Top Gun for you. Except, there’s more. It’s also an unexpected gay classic. * is top gun a gay icon film *
Two years later, he doubled down on that reputatn wh a meo Rory Kelly’s die dramedy Sleep Wh Me, which he lays out the many reasons why Top Gun, wh s many homoerotic unrton, is actually a gay film. “It is a story about a man stgglg wh his own homosexualy.
They’re gay; they reprent the gay man, alright? Go the gay way, go the gay way. Go the gay way.
Be the gay way. Go for the gay way. Last year, when Top Gun celebrated s 35th anniversary, Vulture asked producer Jerry Bckheimer about the film’s standg as an inic moment gay cema.
HOW TOP GUN BEME A GAY CLASSIC
* is top gun a gay icon film *
“Top Gun” producer Jerry Bckheimer celebrated the film’s 35th anniversary this month by reflectg on the movie’s unexpected legacy as a gay film an terview wh Vulture.
This readg of the film was immortalized by Quent Taranto, who has a sgle scene the 1994 movie “Sleep wh Me” which he appears to give a monologue explag why the Tom Cise-starrg “Top Gun” is really “a story about a man’s stggle wh his own homosexualy. They’re gay, they reprent the gay man, all right? And they’re sayg, go, go the gay way, go the gay way.
They’re sayg no, go the gay way, be the gay way, go for the gay way, all right?
TOP GUN: IS THERE REALLY A GAY SUBTEXT? WE ASKED THE WRER
Top Gun has one scene so inic, the sequel shed and went even eper. Here's a look at the gay subtext that everyone's been talkg about. * is top gun a gay icon film *
Taranto’s monologue and the blatant homoerotic unrton of the film’s signature oiled-up beach volleyball game have long kept “Top Gun” at least tangentially related to gay cema. Asked by Vulture what he mak of the homoerotic readg of “Top Gun, ” Bckheimer said he embrac even if that was not the specific tentn of the filmmakg team. It's also, to put bluntly, one of the most homoerotic movi ever ma.
‘TOP GUN: MAVERICK’ IS ACTUALLY THE GAYT MOVIE OF THE YEAR
Taranto's -character rant about Top Gun's gay subtext were addrsed by producer Jerry Bckheimer, who took a solid stance on terpretg art. * is top gun a gay icon film *
Top Gun's homoeroticism. It's tly fascatg how unbridled the homoeroticism of "Top Gun" is. Google "Top Gun Gay" and you'll get a hefty 1, 390, 000, 000 rults.
In her review, cric Ple Kael said that "the movie is a shy homoerotic mercial [... " Quent Taranto would famoly give voice to the theory that the film is actually a gay love story via a typilly Taranto-que monologue the movie "Sleep wh Me. " But watchg the film 2022 as this relic of unexpected gayns is still a cur experience.
There are moments of the movie that are so startlgly gay that they go right back round to beg hetero. In the mentary on the physil releas of the film, Tony Stt said he found spiratn for the athetic of "Top Gun" a book of black and whe photographs by gay photographer Bce Weber. "Everyone was sred bee was famo terms of the gay muny, this book, " said Stt.
TOP GUN: WHY TOM CISE'S FLYG ACTNER IS AN UNTENTNAL GAY CLASSIC
Top Gun producer Jerry Bckheimer don't have any problem wh Quent Taranto's famo monologue about the movie's gay subtext. * is top gun a gay icon film *
He also acknowledged that the film had bee popular wh gay dienc. It would have been wearily unsurprisg had such rpons eliced gay panic, pecially given the startlg homophobia of the era. There's also a thartic thrill to be had wh seeg a film that is pure ary propaganda be this gay, given that was illegal to be out and servg the '80s (the Department of Defense clared 1981 that "the prence the ary environment of persons who engage homosexual nduct or who, by their statements, monstrate a propensy to engage homosexual nduct, serly impairs the acplishment of the ary missn.
TOP GUN PRODUCER FLATTERED BY TARANTO’S MONOLOGUE ABOUT THE FILM’S GAY SUBTEXT
) Queer reprentatn of any kd was extremely rare, particularly films of this sle, and gay jok were mon. The moments that we thk seem gay are posned here as guys beg dus, jt iends and lleagu hangg out and enjoyg themselv ee of srn or judgment.
How many films have you seen where guys refe to hug one another or be open about their feelgs bee would be seen as too gay to do so? The refal to tegorize certa typ of behavr as "gay" or "straight" is a powerful move that dispts homophobic mdsets. How Top Gun Beme A Gay ClassicWhether ’s the guys playg volleyball or displayg their raw sexualy around each other, so rampant is the gay symbolism “Top Gun” that dienc, crics, and even filmmakers like Quent Taranto have been potg to the film’s unniable queer subtext sce chemistry between Maverick and Iceman is like the petty tensn between two ex who n’t move on om each other (that bg scene pretty much do ).
“Top Gun’s” queerns is now mastream knowledge, and while the filmmakers didn’t tend for that, director Tony Stt did adm to takg athetic spiratn om gay photographer Bce Weber, and producer Jerry Bckheimer says the film is open to terpretatn. Given the wildly homophobic era which me out, ’s rehg that the filmmakers wele a queer readg of the filmGiven that time’s illegaly of gay men servg the ary, “Top Gun’s" gay subtext is pleasantly ironic.