Just imagine how awful this is for a movie premise today " Pretty boy actor trains to be a pilot whilst falling for a girl in a film that has multi million selling hit theme tune " Familarity does of course breed contempt and it's amazing to think this movie is 30 years old . AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMEN is a trend setting film and as a production it is a stroke of genius . Think about studio execs and film producers sat in an office somewhere:
" Okay guys New Hollywood is over , the films are crippling the studios and if Coppola or Cimino have anymore freedom we're going to be bankrupted . Anyone got any ideas how to reverse this ? "
" Hey let's make a relatively cheap film that'll appeal to both boys and girls . Maybe we could bring out an official soundtrack album in order to market the movie . Free publicity via the pop charts "
I use the word genius literally . Simple genius at that . It's a film that will appeal to red blooded men and women . The only problem is that by the time TOP GUN became a massive hit the film makers at Hollywood studios had become addicted to this so much cross genre of later years like PEARL HARBOR were in danger of sinking the Hollywood studios . Perhaps if they concentrated on character they would have saved themselves a lot of money
Looking back on this movie it's surprising how hard edged it is . If you've only seen the TV version it's something of a shock to hear the F word uttred a few times. The locations are also very gloomy and the characters aren't entirely likable or played by people from a model agency . In short there's a large amount of realism involved or least compared to its successors . What does let the film down slightly is a couple of cheesy scenes such as the climatic scene where two characters pop off somewhere " Not to talk " . But at the end of the day this is a very effective military/romantic drama
" Okay guys New Hollywood is over , the films are crippling the studios and if Coppola or Cimino have anymore freedom we're going to be bankrupted . Anyone got any ideas how to reverse this ? "
" Hey let's make a relatively cheap film that'll appeal to both boys and girls . Maybe we could bring out an official soundtrack album in order to market the movie . Free publicity via the pop charts "
I use the word genius literally . Simple genius at that . It's a film that will appeal to red blooded men and women . The only problem is that by the time TOP GUN became a massive hit the film makers at Hollywood studios had become addicted to this so much cross genre of later years like PEARL HARBOR were in danger of sinking the Hollywood studios . Perhaps if they concentrated on character they would have saved themselves a lot of money
Looking back on this movie it's surprising how hard edged it is . If you've only seen the TV version it's something of a shock to hear the F word uttred a few times. The locations are also very gloomy and the characters aren't entirely likable or played by people from a model agency . In short there's a large amount of realism involved or least compared to its successors . What does let the film down slightly is a couple of cheesy scenes such as the climatic scene where two characters pop off somewhere " Not to talk " . But at the end of the day this is a very effective military/romantic drama