“Top Gun”

 As we move into the multimedia age, many of us choose to enjoy watching movies over reading “boring” books. As a child I sometimes had an impulsive urge to read and then I would lose complete interest. Reading is just so time consuming, movies on the other hand are so much easier to do! The thing about watching a movie is you get to merge with a technological master piece. A piece of art that shows how far we have come since sticks and stones.

I grew up in India during the cold war era. India was (and still is) a socialistic country. India had close ties with the soviet union and nationalism was still big. While watching Top Gun the first time something just clicked inside of me. All through my childhood I wanted to be a fighter pilot.

With the breath taking cinematography and flight sequences, Top Gun looks as good today as it did when it came out in 1986! There is just something special about traveling 3 times the speed of sound. With my dad being an Aeronautical Engineer, my family was able to see a lot of fighter planes. Every opportunity I had I would run to get my picture taken in a cockpit…. It feels like it was just yesterday when I got to touch a piece of French machinery, called the Mirage 2000. It sure was a mirage… gave me goose bumps just to be in ‘Maverick’s’ shoes.

There’s just something special about a plane being catapulted off an aircraft carrier’s deck. Top Gun was made into a movie to attract young American guns into the military. It might have helped recruit thousands in Nations worldwide. Such is the power of this Hollywood flick!

My brother always used to make fun of me for being short but when he tried out for the military they told him he would be too tall! In my final year of college, I weighed my option of joining the navy as a pilot or doing my masters. My masters felt far more career building. A few dreams I guess are just not meant to be.

Top Gun is a movie truly well made; from flight sequences, to story line and the “OST” is one of the best ever. The young rash top cat showing the establishment how its done. A bit of romance thrown in and the chances you need to take. Some of which horribly go wrong.