Six Reasons Why Women Love Top Gun

Despite Fighter Pilot Bravado, This Film Makes a Great Date Movie

Feb 14, 2009

Romantic couples should revisit Top Gun, with its upcoming release in March 2009 on Blu-ray in a two-disc set with Days of Thunder.

In Top Gun, Tom Cruise stars as Pete Mitchell (alias Maverick) who dons a flight suit and sets out to prove himself the best of the best among other pilots. Filled with testosterone-charged dramatic action, male bonding, aerial dogfights, and locker-room boasting at a U.S. Navy flight school for fighter pilots, Top Gun also blends the right mix of ingredients to appeal to feminine tastes in romantic date movies. Men have always raved about this movie, but there's also plenty for women to enjoy.

1. Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer starred in this 1986 romantic action film when they were both in prime condition in their mid-twenties. Kelly McGillis as the slightly older flight instructor with a Ph.D. in astrophysics comes across as a strong confident woman. As the love interest for Maverick, she projects the right amount of beauty, charm, and vulnerability that women viewers can admire without feeling too threatened.

2. These well-toned fighter pilots-in-training enjoy sweaty, shirtless, games of volleyball and nearly naked locker room scenes. Women viewers will enjoy them as well.

3. The romantic comedy Meet the Parents uses references to Top Gun in two highly memorable scenes during a swimming pool volleyball match and later in a bedroom make-up/make-out session starring Ben Stiller and Teri Polo. Cruise’s “Maverick” character, Kilmer’s “Iceman,” and Anthony Edwards’s ill-fated “Goose” help highlight the humor in this outrageous comedy. Unlike the rippling muscles and macho camaraderie depicted in Top Gun’s volleyball game, Meet the Parents plays the game for laughs.

4. The dogfights and aerial stunts might be intended mostly for male viewers, but the music composer must have had females in mind when he wrote the score. Top Gun is filled with exciting music that soars with the jets and revs up the romance. Giorgio Moroder (music) and Tom Whitlock (lyrics) won Academy Awards in 1987 for Best Music, Original Song for the dreamy “Take My Breath Away,” which was performed by Berlin on the soundtrack.

5. The attractive young cast of twenty-somethings includes a relatively unknown Meg Ryan (in her pre-When Harry Met Sally days) in a small, but memorable, role as a pilot’s wife.

6. Available in various editions on HD DVD, Blu-ray, and VHS, Top Gun also comes out on March 17 in an unrated widescreen edition on Blu-ray in a two-disc set that includes the car racing adventure Days of Thunder. This Daytona Beach, Florida-based film also stars Cruise and his former wife, Australian actor Nicole Kidman in another action-packed romance.

The copyright of the article Six Reasons Why Women Love Top Gun in Romantic Films is owned by Leslie C. Halpern. Permission to republish Six Reasons Why Women Love Top Gun in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.