Top Gun Action Drama
Top Gun relationship to Dully Article Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. The movie was inspired by the article “Top Guns” (U. S. navy established an elite school for one percent of its pilots it purpose was to teach the lost art of aerial combat, also known as flight weapon school) written by Ehud Yonay for California magazine.
The film starts stars such as Tom Cruise as a young naval aviator named Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell; Anthony Edwards aka “Goose” as a Radar Intercept Officer, and Maverick best friend; Kelly McGillis as “Charley” as a civilian instructor in air combat and a lover of Maverick, and others. The movie Top Gun centers around Maverick (Tom Cruise), a hot-headed, troubled, egoist fighter pilot/navy pilot, and how he grows up as a man/person and as a better pilot with the help and influences from his past and his colleagues. In this paper I will be examining the theory or studies given by Dr.
Frank Dully, and relating it to the characters of the movie by identifying their personality traits of naval aviator described in the Dully Article “The Life Style Keys to Flight Deck Performance of the Naval Aviator. ” As mentioned above, this movie portrait around the character Maverick. Who is a very skilled, smart, charming, and one of the best fighter pilots in the nation; but he also is cocky, hot-headed, aggressive, very controlling, emotional, mission-oriented naval aviator who characteristics changes throughout the movie.
In the beginning of the film Maverick and his partner Goose are involved in a reconnaissance mission. While maneuvering Maverick and his partner Goose made a contact to enemy aircraft. With his skills and boldness he maneuvered to trail the enemies’ aircraft; while breaking all the rules of flying such as flying under 10000 altitudes, high-speed passes over 5 air controlled tower, uses the illegal breaking maneuver to outsmart the enemy, performing unrealistic stunts even throughout the movie. This characteristic of Maverick shows that he is reckless, aggressive, and very controlling naval aviator.
As Dully mentioned, the first ingredient of a naval aviator characteristic is being in control, and in this movie Maverick is very controlling, the one who make things happen. Dully also mentions that “oldest sons and oldest daughters comprise a remarkably large segment of this population, well in excess of their demographic one-out-of-three stature. These are the youngsters that initially set out to please that Very Important Parent, (usually Dad), in response to his requirements for excellence in many things. It becomes the mission of the first child to bring to the Very Important Parent a series of vicarious successes.
Seizing the opportunity for recognition and a taste of success, the child usually applies himself diligently to the tasks thus assigned. ” In this movie Mavericks is known as the only son, and his mission-orientation or goal/action was based on his father action and reputations. However his friends are trying to help him to be a team player and a healthier naval aviator. Another characteristic that is associated with Maverick personality traits described in the Dully article is the calculation of emotional distance. As mentioned in the article, there are three factors that shape our emotional views.
First “occurs in the toddler years, the second plays out in early grammar school, and the third takes place late in his high school years. ” For Maverick his emotional feeling or factors seemed like they were inherited from his dad actions. Another example that shows his emotional feeling was in the beginning of the movie when he disobeyed the leader to help one of his fellow pilots back to the carrier. This shows that he is not selfish, he cares for other and he is a team player in his way. Also his emotional feeling come out when his losses his friend Goose.
For instance, when he was trying to drop out of the top gun course; this could symbolize Maverick as a stressed or failing aviator. Lastly his emotions are seen with his relationship with Charlie. That he is a nice, caring and aggressive guy when it comes to Charlie. Another character that plays a huge part in this movie is Anthony Edwards aka “Goose,” a Radar Intercept Officer, and Maverick best friend. In his movie Goose would be described as the man who influences Maverick to change from a hot-headed, reckless fighter pilot to a well-mannered, responsible, team-player pilot.
After Maverick passed by the control tower, Goose told him that his action will also endangered his own place at work, so to be careful. Goose personality traits are not really mentioned well in the movie; however he seems to have a good balance with Maverick to make a good naval aviator. Goose personality traits are that he is very likable, friendly, caring, funny, not controlling, a good husband and naval pilot. According to the Grid I would classify Goose as a 5, 5 pilot because he has come to adopt or adjust to the system and to the comfortable tempo that
Maverick lives in. The last character I will be describing, and who had a big influence on Mavericks well-being is Charlie. She is a highly-qualified instructor at the school and holds a degree in air combat. Throughout the movie she has different personality and behaviors. She too, is an ambiguous figure. She seems fairly masculinizing and controlling through her name. However she has an emotional affiliation with Maverick that she wants to keep private. She is also very aggressive, usually get what she wants.
As Dully mentions, usually the oldest son the controlling and aggressive ends up with the same counter-part controlling and aggressive oldest daughter in this case it seems true. Although this movie could be a good description on what a healthy/good and bad naval aviator life might be. It has a Hollywood twist and a perfect ending which make it hard to conclude and study the life, personality, and attitude of naval pilots. But it shows the significant characteristic described by Dully.
