How Gay is Top Gun?
I’m guessing I wouldn’t be alone if I said the only thing I remember about Sleep With Me, Rory Kelly’s 1994 independent romantic comedy–so generic it starred Eric Stoltz–is the brilliant deconstruction of Top Gun that Quentin Tarantino wandered onto the set to deliver. It’s funny and shrewd, and exactly the kind of thing video store clerks love to monologue about when you put a beer in their hand. Which is apparently how this bit was born. Tarantino acknowledges it was actually Roger Avery’s brainchild, but claims the two built the bit into feverish longform at parties and bars together, a believable story if there ever was one.
For me, videos like this one, by Dale Hersh and Mike Heim, should be the future of film criticism. With minimal text and a couple bits of a Tarantino explication, it demonstrates it points largely through excerpts of the film itself. Of course, Hersh & Heim (sounds like a candy company, or something), are probably less concerned with the nature of video-form film criticism than with making us laugh. They’re both comedy writers who’ve actually worked this premise–that Top Gun is gay–into a successful full-length Airplane-esque sketch show in West Hollywood, Gay Top Gun.
Style aside, I have mixed feelings about the commentary itself. Latent homosexual subtext is one of the easiest of grad-humour reinterpretations, and sometimes feels like it could be used almost ubiquitously, like the way Slavoj Zizek can do Freudian interpretations, ad infinitum. And though these riffs may be easy, and fun, like pop-level Freud, I have serious doubts about their veracity.
So why are they easy and fun? Well, let’s start with “fun”. I think the humor of them springs largely from the viewer/joker’s own mild homosexual panic. In my experience, the most common purveyors of these humorous reinterpretations are liberal-minded straight men. Yes, Mark Rappaport made Rock Hudson’s Home Movies, a feature-length video-essay about queer subtext, but I don’t think it’s a joke to him. Humor springs from the things in life we are uncomfortable with (think scatalogy), but basically find harmless. Bad, but not really bad, simultaneously. Like how Quentin Tarantino feels about homosexuality (let’s not get started on Bruce Willis’ segment of Pulp Fiction). And, if we’re willing to be honest, a lot of straight liberal guys like me.
And why easy? Because male bonding and fraternal love is everywhere. Every “buddy” movie, you could say. Batman and Robin. Lone Ranger and Tonto. Huck Finn and Jim. All of which have been queer theorized. Not to say that one couldn’t view these easily through pink-colored glasses, but to do so is to willfully misunderstand them for humorous effect (double meanings and misunderstandings are also fun). It seems more likely to me, that the real subtext of these stories is infantile, presexual. The reason the female relationships are so unimportant in these films is arrested development, a fantasy of an extended idyllic boyhood of make-believe, in which we are free from adult worries. Like, you know, women. It’s like the Little Rascal’s “He-Man Woman Haters Club”.
All that said, Top Gun is pretty gay. I mean, look at it.
P.S. Did you know that “Tom Cruise” is, in some circles, actually slang for homosexual. At least according to definitions 23 & 24 on urbandictionary.com.
February 12th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
I really like this reading of the video. I used to teach that segment from Sleep with Me in my freshman composition classes when I first started grad school because it’s interesting as a form of argument–is the Tarantino character’s evidence convincing? What scenes does he omit? Does he misrepresent anything in Top Gun? Uesd to provoke some interesting discussions. But yeah, when there are slash videos for pretty much every TV show and character ever known on YouTube, shouldn’t we start thinking about alternative modes of video-form film criticism?
February 12th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Looking for alternative modes of video-form criticism is what I would really like to be blogging about. The real problem is how long it takes. Recently, I’ve been thinking about how much video the Daily Show uses, alters, analyzes, and generally culture-jams. In some ways, they are quietly doing the most cutting edge video criticism around…it’s just so smooth and entertaining we take it for granted.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
2 the revitol review…
I Would Like Some Info On Revitol Reviews…
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:13 am
cash advance…
Cash advance easy way to get payday loan
Uk mortgages
Uk mortgage
Uk home mortgages
Small business loan
Secured credit cards
Second mortgage
Reverse mortgage
Refinance
Quickest cash advance
Personal loan
Payday loans
Payday loan
Payday loa…
April 24th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Nys lottery…
Virginia lottery
Virgin casino
Video poker
Va lottery
Usa casino directory
Us online casino reviews
Us friendly casinos
Us friendly poker sites
Ultimate roulette system urs
Uk national lottery
Uk lottery
Turning stone c…
April 24th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Texas holdem…
Texas holdem…
April 24th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Slot machines…
Slot machine…
April 25th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Poker Online…
Online poker…
April 26th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Top Online Casinos…
Poker Online - Online Poker -Top Online Casinos - Casino Online - Online Casino…
April 28th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Online Poker Sites…
Online Poker Sites
Casino Games
Play Poker
Online Gambling
Keno
Free Slots
Top Online Casinos…
May 1st, 2008 at 5:16 am
Cricket Ringtones…
Motorola Ringtones
Motorola Ringtones free
Movie Ringtones
Mp3 Ringtone
Music Ringtones
Nascar Ringtones
Nextel Ringtones
Nokia Ringtone
Nokia Ringtones
Paul van dyk Ringtones
Polyphonic Ringtones
Polyphonic Ringtones f…
May 1st, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Ringtone…
Shut up Ringtone
Silent Ringtone
Smack that Ringtone
…
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:38 am
High school musical Ringtones…
Verizon wireless Ringtones
Voice Ringtones
Wildlife Ringtones
…
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:03 am
At t Ringtones…
At t Ringtones
Blackberry Ringtones
Bruce springsteen Ringtones
…
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Samsung Ringtones…
Crazy frog Ringtone
Create Ringtones
Cricket Ringtones
…
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:19 am
Movie Ringtones…
Funny Ringtones
Ghost Ringtone
High school musical Ringtones
…
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:28 am
Crazy frog Ringtone…
Motorola Ringtones
Motorola Ringtones free
Movie Ringtones
…
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Us cellular Ringtones…
Polyphonic Ringtones free
Potter Ringtones
Real music Ringtones
…
June 4th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Rorie…
Wow! This was a really enlightening article….
June 5th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Gay Sex Gay Men Fucking Free Gay Pics…
I can not agree with you in 100% regarding some thoughts, but you got good point of view…
June 11th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Download Free Mp3 Hollywood Ringtones…
The term is used colloquially for any kind of Linkback. One notable blogging tool that does not support trackback yet is Blogger.A Trackback…