TOP GUN Ruined The Movies

At least that’s the claim put forward in an interesting GQ opinion piece.

Mark Harris has written an interesting piece for the new GQ called The Day The Movies Died; it’s yet another piece in a long history of pieces lamenting the shitiness of modern movies (a history to which I’ve contributed more than my fair share). There are some very interesting things in Harris’ article, especially a discussion of the rise of movie marketing being parallel to the fall of movie storytelling. He’s right - the movies that get greenlit are the ones that can be sold, not the ones that are good.

Harris makes an interesting assertion, going against the long-held truism that it was Star Wars and Jaws that caused the decline of movie quality (not the films themselves, per se, but the impact that the concept of blockbusters had on movie making) - he says that actually it was Top Gun that dealt the blow to Hollywood.



That last sentence is telling, and in 30 years we’re going to be seeing sentences like “Who would you rather have in charge—someone whose definition of a classic is Jaws or someone whose definition of a classic is Transformers?”

Harris’ piece really brings me back to the unhealthy scale of movie making and selling. It’s mentioned in the article that mid-level, 40-60 million dollar dramas are impossible to make profitable anymore. The cost of selling them is so high that it essentially doubles the amount needed to be recouped. Of course 40-60 million is a whole lot of money in general, and that also speaks to the scale of filmmaking. It all costs too much. And as it costs too much to sell them and make them, the only way to get your money back is to guarantee a massive hit. And the only way to guarantee a massive hit is to ape the massive hit that came before - or at least sell it that way. We’re still seeing 40 Year Old Virgin-inspired posters with Hall Pass this week.

I hope that the movie industry figures its shit out. I would rather see a couple less action films and superhero movies and more films that are smart and about stuff. I know, I’m elitist.

Click here to read The Day The Movies Died.