Was Top Gun homoerotic?
August 28, 2004 6:22 PM Subscribe
You're right, I am dangerous. Did Top Gun seem as ridiculously homoerotic when it came out in the 80s as it does now?
Seems to me like it could never not be read that way. Course, this is coming from someone who picks up gay undertones between KITT and Michael Knight.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:11 PM on August 28, 2004
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:11 PM on August 28, 2004
It had teh gay back in the 80's, yes.
But not as much as Predator did. Bill Duke and Jessie "The Governing Body" Ventura were clearly lovers in that movie.
and everyone knows that KITT was faithful to Airwolf and wouldn't touch that hairy lout...
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:38 PM on August 28, 2004
But not as much as Predator did. Bill Duke and Jessie "The Governing Body" Ventura were clearly lovers in that movie.
and everyone knows that KITT was faithful to Airwolf and wouldn't touch that hairy lout...
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:38 PM on August 28, 2004
Did Top Gun seem as ridiculously homoerotic when it came out in the 80s as it does now?
to you, or to george michael?
posted by quonsar at 7:38 PM on August 28, 2004
to you, or to george michael?
posted by quonsar at 7:38 PM on August 28, 2004
I'm sorry I came into this late. Zonker, I was going to post the whole quote (which, to hear Tarantino deliver, is just great.)
Now, did anyone find the Last Lord of the Rings film homoerotic at all? Especially at how thrilled merry and pippin are to see each other at the end?
posted by filmgeek at 8:33 PM on August 28, 2004
Now, did anyone find the Last Lord of the Rings film homoerotic at all? Especially at how thrilled merry and pippin are to see each other at the end?
posted by filmgeek at 8:33 PM on August 28, 2004
filmgeek, I'm not a LOTR fan, but that was way over the top homoerotic, which made me partially glad I wasted my time watching the damn movie.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 9:53 PM on August 28, 2004
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 9:53 PM on August 28, 2004
Oh for goodness sake. Read this link from this thread regarding the whole Frodo and Sam thing, and realize that our culture has a problem realizing closenes/touch/intimacy/sex are not the same thing.
posted by namespan at 10:31 PM on August 28, 2004 [1 favorite]
posted by namespan at 10:31 PM on August 28, 2004 [1 favorite]
From Pauline Kael's original Top Gun review (copied from For Keeps):
"In Nabokov's Lolita, Humbert Humbert tortures himself with images of his nymphet in the arms of "kissy-faced brutes"; that's what Top Gun is full of. When McGillis is offscreen, the movie is a shiny homoerotic commercial featuring the elite fighter pilots in training at San Diego's Miramar Naval Air Station. The pilots strut around the locker room, towels hanging precariously from their waists, and when they speak to each other they're head to head, as if to shout "Sez you!" It's as if masculinity had been redefined as how a young man looks with his clothes half off, and as if narcissism is what being a warrior is all about."
posted by donth at 10:32 PM on August 28, 2004
"In Nabokov's Lolita, Humbert Humbert tortures himself with images of his nymphet in the arms of "kissy-faced brutes"; that's what Top Gun is full of. When McGillis is offscreen, the movie is a shiny homoerotic commercial featuring the elite fighter pilots in training at San Diego's Miramar Naval Air Station. The pilots strut around the locker room, towels hanging precariously from their waists, and when they speak to each other they're head to head, as if to shout "Sez you!" It's as if masculinity had been redefined as how a young man looks with his clothes half off, and as if narcissism is what being a warrior is all about."
posted by donth at 10:32 PM on August 28, 2004
sigh... Top Gun is only as gay as you are.
posted by Keyser Soze at 12:57 AM on August 29, 2004
posted by Keyser Soze at 12:57 AM on August 29, 2004
By the way, you can ride my tail anytime!
posted by Keyser Soze at 1:06 AM on August 29, 2004
posted by Keyser Soze at 1:06 AM on August 29, 2004
> By the way, you can ride my tail anytime!
Keyser, you've got a Mig at zero.
posted by jfuller at 6:39 AM on August 29, 2004
Keyser, you've got a Mig at zero.
posted by jfuller at 6:39 AM on August 29, 2004
Heh, if you thought LOTR was gay, read the books. It's like a big gay greasy orgy.
posted by angry modem at 7:44 AM on August 29, 2004
posted by angry modem at 7:44 AM on August 29, 2004
though burroughs knows how to write about it a little more effectively ^_______________^
posted by angry modem at 7:44 AM on August 29, 2004
posted by angry modem at 7:44 AM on August 29, 2004
it totally was, and it was compared to Bruce Weber's work too. There were a lot of homoerotic undertones to butch movies in the 80s.
posted by amberglow at 8:09 AM on August 29, 2004
posted by amberglow at 8:09 AM on August 29, 2004
As for LOTR...the big bed romp is hilarious when looked at through the homoerotic lens...One by one they enter Frodo's room, with big grins aplenty and then proceed to jump into Frodo's roomy bed. Man I giggled during that scene...
posted by Richat at 8:11 AM on August 29, 2004
posted by Richat at 8:11 AM on August 29, 2004
this says it all:
Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence:
Sweaty young studs fly planes, shower together.
Homoeroticism:
In many ways, this should be the only category that matters for a film like this. Never in my life have I seen a film so top-heavy with homoerotic longings and beefy men who look at each other with love, affection, and sexual delight. ...
posted by amberglow at 8:12 AM on August 29, 2004
Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence:
Sweaty young studs fly planes, shower together.
Homoeroticism:
In many ways, this should be the only category that matters for a film like this. Never in my life have I seen a film so top-heavy with homoerotic longings and beefy men who look at each other with love, affection, and sexual delight. ...
posted by amberglow at 8:12 AM on August 29, 2004
skallas: This is also why I don't have a girlfriend.
You can ride my tail anytime!
posted by UKnowForKids at 8:30 AM on August 29, 2004
You can ride my tail anytime!
posted by UKnowForKids at 8:30 AM on August 29, 2004
You mean to say the boys weren't strutting about for my enjoyment?!
*whimper*
posted by deborah at 10:51 AM on August 29, 2004
*whimper*
posted by deborah at 10:51 AM on August 29, 2004
you're
posted by BentPenguin at 12:20 PM on August 29, 2004
posted by BentPenguin at 12:20 PM on August 29, 2004
Does anyone remember the cartoon Hercules? I think it was originally made in the sixties, but it was still playing in the seventies and eighties when I was a kid. I didn't know what gay WAS back then, but recently read something about its gay subtext and I laughed until tears were coming out of my eyes. i.e., All those bare chested characters. Hercules was muscular, yet hairless. They have one scene in which a character is saying of another, deathly ill character, "He needs the magic fruit. Where is the magic fruit?" The scene then changes to one of Hercules and Newton walking along together.
To get back to the actual intended subject of this thread... I haven't ever seen all of Top Gun, only bits of it. But I'm inclined to think as homosexuality becomes more mainstream, we straights are becoming progressively more aware of gay subtext in a way people weren't ten or twenty years ago. Quite often when I'm reading old novels I find myself cracking up over something that now reads as completely gay. The text is what it always was, but we're a different kind of audience, and we derive different things from it. That's why people are still writing essays about Shakespeare's plays. We are never going to arrive at some fixed perception of any piece of art.
posted by orange swan at 3:31 PM on August 29, 2004
To get back to the actual intended subject of this thread... I haven't ever seen all of Top Gun, only bits of it. But I'm inclined to think as homosexuality becomes more mainstream, we straights are becoming progressively more aware of gay subtext in a way people weren't ten or twenty years ago. Quite often when I'm reading old novels I find myself cracking up over something that now reads as completely gay. The text is what it always was, but we're a different kind of audience, and we derive different things from it. That's why people are still writing essays about Shakespeare's plays. We are never going to arrive at some fixed perception of any piece of art.
posted by orange swan at 3:31 PM on August 29, 2004
...we straights are becoming progressively more aware of gay subtext in a way people weren't ten or twenty years ago.
It's true...us fags have been seeing it (and in some cases, producing it that way) for ages and ages.
posted by amberglow at 4:08 PM on August 29, 2004
It's true...us fags have been seeing it (and in some cases, producing it that way) for ages and ages.
posted by amberglow at 4:08 PM on August 29, 2004
Quentin Tarantino's famous 'Top Gun' speech was originally written by filmmaker and friend, Roger Avary, for another project.
posted by NortonDC at 6:38 PM on August 29, 2004
posted by NortonDC at 6:38 PM on August 29, 2004
Keyser, you've got a Mig at zero.
Not a Migs? Sigh, I keep hoping that his cigars have more significance.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:19 PM on September 2, 2004
Not a Migs? Sigh, I keep hoping that his cigars have more significance.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:19 PM on September 2, 2004
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Zonker at 6:42 PM on August 28, 2004