Top Gun, Maverick…The Right Stuff redux…a good thing By Patricia McCarthy
“The patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”
—Mark Twain
The new Tom Cruise movie that reboots his Top Gun film from thirty-six years ago is glorious.
While it may require a measure of suspension of disbelief, it is a blessedly old-fashioned celebration of America; of our formerly superb military; and, most important of all, of courageous American men — the kind of men that made this nation great, the kind of men (and one gutsy woman in the film) who are now disparaged as toxic.
There has not been a film quite like this since the original film except for The Right Stuff in 1983, one of the greatest of all time. That film was based on the definitive book about the space program by Tom Wolfe. It is a fabulous book.
The script for this new Top Gun is clearly based on the essential formula of The Right Stuff. Top-notch skilled pilots, the best of the best, are brought together to be trained for a crucial but dangerous mission. The Right Stuff was about the beginning of the supersonic transition to the American space program and the vetting of the men who would be our first astronauts. Chuck Yeager, the man who first broke the sound barrier, was excluded because he lacked a college degree.
This new film is about a team of elite fighter pilots, only eight of whom will be chosen for the foray into enemy territory to destroy a nuclear installation, presumably Iran. Cruise, as Maverick Pete Mitchell, is brought back to train the team from whom the eight will be chosen.
At age sixty, Cruise is still a fine actor; one can assume that CGI has taken a few years off his handsome face. His character is resented by many of his superiors in the Navy for his crossing of too many lines, for breaking too many rules, but he has an advocate from the first film, “Ice,” played by Val Kilmer…again.
This thread borrows from the film Clear and Present Danger; mentor James Earl Jones dies in that film, leaving his protégé to stand alone. Added to the mix is the fact that the son of Maverick’s former wingman who was killed in a crash that Maverick survived is among these pilots. The son blames Maverick for his father’s death and for pulling his application papers to the Naval Academy, which he did, setting his career back four years. The tension between this young man and Maverick may be a film cliché, but it is palpable.
There are a couple of other movies that this film also tips its hat to: Hunter Killer, 2018, and Firefox, 1982. Those two films also depict courageous men willing to put their lives on the line for their country. Such men do this because they are well trained and thus highly skilled. They are at the top of their game and proud of their accomplishments. They are cocky, and they are very brave.
Are the planes and the amazing technology in this new film real? Let’s hope so; let us hope as well that they are beyond the standards of our enemies — China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Chances are the U.S. has been surpassed, thanks to the left’s incomprehensible and unworkable obsession with climate change and a green new deal to the detriment of military preparedness.
It is hard to imagine the Joe Biden inner circle, cowards that they are, ever approving a mission like the one in this new film. They are cowed by China, Russia, and Iran and seem not only willing but determined to demoralize Americans in order to appease those enemies.
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There is more than enough documentation to prove that Biden is owned — lock, stock, and barrel — by the CCP. They have all the goods on Hunter Biden’s misadventures. Joe Biden will not do anything to challenge them.
As for Russia, Biden is using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder in a misguided effort to take Putin down. Forty billion dollars to Ukraine? No money to protect our southern border or to harden American schools to prevent horrific events like what happened in Uvalde? Biden’s Ukraine largesse will prop up the American arms industry and fill the pockets of members of Congress, including his own, one way or another. This is an administration that cares not one bit for the American people. With notable exceptions, these people are in the business only of enriching themselves. China has surely captured our elites.
Where are the men like those characters in Top Gun, The Right Stuff, Hunter Killer, etc.? Do they even exist anymore, or have they been neutralized, feminized? Chances are they exist in flyover country, where common sense still prevails. Given what we know about Gen. Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin, they are being weeded out of the military. Men like the Maverick character would probably be court-martialed or tossed in jail with the January 6 prisoners for their unbridled patriotism. The Biden military is concerned only with diversity, equity, and inclusion, three words that mean the end of American military might and academic achievement. Merit has no place in Biden’s America. One has to wonder if there are any men and women signing up and being trained to defend our nation as there once were. Are they enlisting for the free “gender transition” surgery? Some are. As a result of Milley’s, Austin’s, and Biden’s leadership (not), we are essentially at war with Russia, and China is champing at the bit to take Taiwan and further destroy the American economy. Will Biden let it? Of course, he will. He’s already been paid to submit.
Top Gun: Maverick is a terrific film. It is exciting, and it is a brief trip back to the American exceptionalism we all once took for granted but cannot any longer. Beginning with the Obama presidency, we are being hollowed out from the inside. Our institutions — the FBI, CIA, DOJ — have all been weaponized and criminalized.
Trump was an unexpected interloper who brought America back for a term until the crooks installed Biden and once again began their malicious plan to destroy us from within. More than two million unvetted migrants have been admitted into the country and deposited in the dark of night into towns throughout the nation. Apparently, the Democrats believe that by importing millions of illegals they aim to coddle, they will be an elected majority in perpetuity. Good luck; many of them are fleeing Marxist dictatorships or regimes that are easily as corrupt as our own, led by the left. They just may support the freedoms our Constitution guarantees to all comers: speech, religion, and assembly.
See the film. Re-watch The Right Stuff and Hunter Killer. Be reminded what America was all about once upon a time.
“The patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”
—Mark Twain
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