Top Gun: Maverick—War propaganda built to order for the United States military

Movie Review "Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the Top Gun of 1986, is a repugnant, empty film commissioned by the United States military to revel wholeheartedly in its war machine. It is replete with bombastic action sequences, loving close-ups of fighter jets and other weaponry, empty bravado and little else.

The “blockbuster,” which stars Tom Cruise returning as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, picks up 36 years after the conclusion of the original film (directed by Tony Scott, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Cruise, Val Kilmer and Kelly McGillis) in which protagonist Mitchell becomes the star pilot of an elite military flight school (nicknamed “Top Gun”). He overcomes the loss of best friend/wingman “Goose” (played by Anthony Edwards) and excels in a bombing raid carried out against an unnamed enemy combatant.

In the sequel, directed by Joseph Kosinski and co-produced by Bruckheimer and Cruise, Mitchell has been demoted from a test flight program (in which the lead character pilots a hypersonic aircraft, donated for the scene courtesy of military contractor Lockheed Martin) to the role of instructor at the same Top Gun flight school from the first movie.

There, he must assemble a strike team of new recruits in order to carry out a dangerous mission against an enemy force secretly enriching uranium. Though not stated, it is hinted that the opponent is either Iran or Russia.

The new sequel has grossed hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket sales. Since its release on May 27 in the United States, Top Gun: Maverick has grossed more than $292 million domestically and over $557 million internationally as of this writing. “For the first time in his four-decade career, Tom Cruise, 59, has a movie that has a real shot at joining the billion-dollar club at the global box office,” crows Yahoo! Finance.... (7:02 min) Audio Mp3 https://xenagoguevicene.files.wordpress.com/2023/07/15july2023am820topgun.mp3