Why You're Wrong about TOP GUN - Maverick Was a Phony
According to Amy Nicholson of LA Weekly, Tom Cruise's Maverick was a phony in Tony Scott's 1986 film Top Gun. Nicholson released a video essay called "Why You're Wrong About Top Gun," and she seriously makes some very interesting and valid points that makes me see this movie in a completely different light. In her opinion, Maverick wasn’t actually a tough guy in the the story, he was just a scared kid who was trying to be a tough guy.
Nicholson wrote a book called Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor, which is described as follows:
The Anatomy of an Actor series takes ten roles by a single actor, each studied in a dedicated chapter, and identifies the key elements that made the performances exceptional - carefully examining the actor's craft for both a professional audience and movie fans alike. This title looks at Hollywood icon Tom Cruise. First cast by Francis Ford Coppola in The Outsiders (1983), he gained international notoriety in the mid-1980s thanks to Tony Scott's Top Gun (1986). One of the most sought-after actors, Cruise has oriented his career to blockbusters, with a predilection for action and science fiction, starring in such movies as Michael Mann's Collateral (2004), Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005), the Mission: Impossible series (1996, 2000, 2006, 2011) and Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion (2013).
This is worth a watch for anyone who is a fan of Top Gun. Hell, even if you're not a fan, you should watch it. Thanks to /Film for bringing it to my attention.