Top Gun (1986) (Blu Ray) - 8/10

Watched Top Gun again with commentary by director Tony Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, and the technical advisors on the film who talked about the authentity of the dogfighting scenes and explained the background for making it. Tom Cruise really came out of his shell in this movie as the confident movie star he is in what is still some of the best aerial battle scenes to date. I like the use of 80s music throughout the action scenes where Tony Scott explains he wanted them to dicate the pacing of the shots, not the editing. Whether it be paying to use an aircraft carrier for an hour out of his own pocket or using realistic call signs for the pilots, Tony Scott immersed himself in this Top Gun flight school to get all the manuerisms and cockiness of these "mig-killers". What I found so fascinating about the commentary this time around was how the described shooting some of the crashing scenes with models, then intercutting it with real footage they shot in the skies to make it seem like it was way more dangerous than it really was. From setting up the volleyball scenes just for the girls or trying to make the hot flight instructor seem "normal", Top Gun really captures the excitement and balls all these pilots had to try and bring a new era of fighters. They talk about why Top Gun was created in the first place to try and improve the kill-death ratio as well as the scenes that were completely unrealistic like Maverick leading his buddy in the beginning, the locker room scene, or the way they got their assignments. This movie is always fun to revisit just for the sheer energy it brings, one of the first movies to deptict realistic flying while also catipulting Tony Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer and Tom Cruise into stars with this blockbuster of 1986. "I feel the need, the need for speed!". Words to live life by, especially in a post Speed Racer world.