Poll: Is it fair to call Top Gun gay?

[Squilookle]

And no, I don't mean in the 'movie sucks' kind of way. I'm talking about the specific headhunting of homo-erotic under/overtones whether they are in there or not, intentionally or otherwise.

I mean, sure it has a fair amount of half naked men in it, but isn't that just covering all bases -as most movies do- to give the OTHER person on the date/in the relationship something to watch? Is it really that different from the romance subplots that pop up in war films all the time?

And how is it all that different from Predator, which has enough naked man-meat on display to sink a ship, yet somehow gets crowned the manliest movie ever made?

Discuss.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Oh yeah. Toooooooooooooooooootally gay.

Tom Cruise/Val Kilmer =/= Jesse Ventura/Carl Weathers.

There is nothing gay about Jesse or Carl, which is why Predator isn't considered "gay".

 

[Dr Pussymagnet]

Maybe because the Predator never played volleyball with Arnold and the boys.

I don't know, I've never actually seen Top Gun.

 

[Mischa87]

Is it really homoerotic if it's not explicitly intended for gay men? Me thinks someone has a secret...

 

[Space Spoons]

I've never met anyone who seriously thought Top Gun had homoerotic undertones. Lots of people make jokes about it because yeah, it's shirtless guys playing volleyball and flying jets and saying stuff like "You can be my wingman anytime". It's easy pickings.

That said, the movie pretty much defines the term "bromance".

 

[Sutter Cane]

I'll just let quentin tarantino take this one for me (warning NSFW due to language)

 

[Talydia]

I've never met anyone who seriously thought Top Gun had homoerotic undertones. Lots of people make jokes about it because yeah, it's shirtless guys playing volleyball and flying jets and saying stuff like "You can be my wingman anytime". It's easy pickings.

That said, the movie pretty much defines the term "bromance".

Pretty much this. Shirtless volleyball and some locker room scenes. How many sports movies have locker room scenes with guys wearing towels? Haven't heard them being called gay. I think Tom Cruise being IN those scenes is the reason it gets poked at for being gay. but the movie itself isn't gay just because of them.

 

[plugav]

I'll just let quentin tarantino take this one for me (warning NSFW due to language)

That's the exact same clip I though about when I saw the thread title. Almost makes me want to rewatch Top Gun.

 

[LordOmnit]

But in all seriousness, although I haven't seen it I just assume it to more or less mirror American male sports teams in that it's easy to pick on for the overemphasis of masculinity while surrounded by other males trying to be overly masculine and everyone is in various stages of undress. Easy to pick on, so yes fair, but whether or not it is is irrelevant.

 

[Kirtap]

I haven't seen top gun, but its still matter of deffinition.
Internet: Something bad
Old Timey: Happy as an adjective
Nowadays: Homosexual as an adjective/Noun

 

[Gralian]

Well 300 is one of the most homoerotic movies ever (lots of mostly naked hypermasculinised dudes with nary a woman in sight) but it's still classified as a testosterone pumping manly action flick. Take from that what you will.

To be honest, most aspects of "male culture" is homoerotic by definition. An example of this is the typical image of guys whipping each other with towels in the communal showers after workout or sports. And let's not even start about some cultures that are so centralised around masculinity that homosexual relations are a rite of passage that must be undergone before you can claim a woman - see the ancient Greek and Spartan traditions of young males being taken by older ones to instruct them about sexuality, or to assert one's dominance.

 

[guitarsniper]

watching Top Gun with a friend; scene where

Spoiler

Goose

dies, dialog
me: I guess Iceman pulled out too late
awkward pause
me: but that's neither here nor there
laughter erupts

and that is why top gun is the most homoerotic movie of all time that's not ACTUAL gay porn, at least to me.

 

[EvilPicnic]

Well 300 is one of the most homoerotic movies ever (lots of mostly naked hypermasculinised dudes with nary a woman in sight) but it's still classified as a testosterone pumping manly action flick. Take from that what you will.

To be honest, most aspects of "male culture" is homoerotic by definition. An example of this is the typical image of guys whipping each other with towels in the communal showers after workout or sports. And let's not even start about some cultures that are so centralised around masculinity that homosexual relations are a rite of passage that must be undergone before you can claim a woman - see the ancient Greek and Spartan traditions of young males being taken by older ones to instruct them about sexuality, or to assert one's dominance.

This is quite true. The concept of 'macho' overlaps with (and perhaps = ) the homoerotic. Top Gun (and 300) take the macho theme so far they become very definitely homoerotic in tone, and this is heightened in Top Gun by the 80s fashions and past-times that to today's eyes seem effeminate.

And what's wrong with that?

 

[CommanderKirov]

No it's not. They prefer to be called "Homosexuals" nowdays.