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.
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
- THE ORIGAL TOP GUN WAS MY SWEATY, SEXY GAY SALVATN
JERRY BCKHEIMER WEIGHS ON TARANTO’S ‘TOP GUN’ GAY FILM MONOLOGUE: ‘A COMPLIMENT’
And what said was: “You’re gay now. Now, I have heard the volleyball scene Top Gun referred to as “homoerotic. ” The volleyball scene is not homoerotic.
The volleyball scene is homosexual.
HOW TOP GUN BEME A GAY CLASSIC
Every gay man wh ten years of my age will tell you the same thg. The volleyball scene didn’t make gay. “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?
TOP GUN: IS THERE REALLY A GAY SUBTEXT? WE ASKED THE WRER
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? 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.
THE ORIGAL TOP GUN WAS MY SWEATY, SEXY GAY SALVATN
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. Instead, we’re talkg about the mute and a half scene that cemented this movie the md of almost every viewer, om film cric to sual watcher, and gave Top Gun a cult followg among the gay muny. That brief scene is filled wh so much homoerotic energy, genue appreciatn of the male body, and stanc of men appreciatg other men’s physique, ’s no wonr why this film has been embraced by the gay muny.
But more than that, Top Gun’s volleyball scene surprisgly enpsulat the plited battle between sexual exploratn, reprsn, and homophobia that happened durg 1980s cema. An era of liberalism the 1960s ntributed to homosexualy beg more accepted. Society was advancg, slowly learng to be more acceptg, until the late ‘70s and ‘80s when a wave of nservative backlash upled wh the emergence of HIV, which was monly lked to gay men, shifted the social tis.
That’s the social bubble that the most homoerotic volleyball game between straight men exists, and ’s important. Also, jt to add to the homoeroticism, the teams are playg for an dience of at least 20 other young men, most of them shirtls.