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: MAVERICK’ IS ACTUALLY THE GAYT MOVIE OF THE YEAR
- THE ORIGAL TOP GUN WAS MY SWEATY, SEXY GAY SALVATN
JERRY BCKHEIMER WEIGHS ON TARANTO’S ‘TOP GUN’ GAY FILM MONOLOGUE: ‘A COMPLIMENT’
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. * top gun volleyball scene gay *
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
* top gun volleyball scene gay *
Every gay man wh ten years of my age will tell you the same thg.
The volleyball scene didn’t make gay. Y, the scene was homoerotic by sign, arguably the bt exprsn of Stt’s onscreen terpretatn of Bce Weber’s photography. And Paramount executiv were nervo about , too, ightened that Stt may have been takg too much spiratn om Weber — whose artistic photos of nu and sntily clad men were most popular wh the gay muny at the time.
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.
‘TOP GUN: MAVERICK’ IS ACTUALLY THE GAYT MOVIE OF THE YEAR
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. However, the lack of shirts paired wh the gaze of the scene’s male dience mak a straight celebratn of homosexualy.
THE ORIGAL TOP GUN WAS MY SWEATY, SEXY GAY SALVATN
This volleyball game potedly has nothg to do wh the plot, blatantly clarg s role as fan service, but ’s also a homoerotic scene a male sphere. Havg this potedly sexual scene exist this genr-exclive ntext mak a sneaky pot about the prevalence or even jt existence of homosexualy.
However, assurg viewers that the characters fely aren’t gay — they’re totally straight, du — mak a smarter and more plited pot about how ridiculoly reprsed cema was durg the ‘80s. Jt remember, no homo. “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?