In mythology, all the old stories are always new again.
So it is with Top Gun, that now 35-year old wonder that epitomizes the 1980’s rehabilitation of the US military and Reagan-era patriotism. There’s now a sequel (Top Gun: Maverick), with a few of the old actors (Tom Cruise is 60, can you believe it?) and a new spin on the old tale.
I haven’t seen the new movie, so no spoilers on that one.
What I want to do is link Top Gun with Greek Mythology, and specifically the Iliad. It’s a link I made as soon as I first saw the movie lo these many millennia ago, and so for me this newsletter is also something old made new again.
I think Top Gun gets its appeal not only from its rah-rah-America-boo-Soviet-Union slant, but primarily because the Iliad is a good story on which to base any story from any mythology.
In other words, what’s old can be new again if it was good in the first place.
(I should also say that the Iliad gets a substantial amount of its inspiration from the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, but that’s a newsletter for another day.)
Top Gun, like the Iliad, is the story of a hot-headed young hero, a naval fighter pilot who goes by the call sign (military nickname) “Maverick.” His given name is Pete Mitchell, which is so bland as to be one hundred percent forgettable. “Maverick” is the character’s real name, which symbolizes his rule-breaking nature—the horse without a brand, without an owner, that roams free.
Achilles, the hero of the Iliad, is also a maverick. He seems to have no family or attachments when we first meet him. He knows he is the best of the best and wants everyone to respect that.
Agamemnon, Achilles’ commanding officer in the Trojan War, insults Achilles by taking away his war prize, a woman named Briseis. At the time, Achilles doesn’t let on that he loves Briseis. He just thinks Agamemnon has done him wrong and he wants to get back at him. So he withdraws from the battle.
The best of the best goes on strike.
In Top Gun, Maverick doesn’t quit until near the end of the movie, but he is always challenging the rules, trying to show that he is the best of the best. He has been insulted as well, because he lives under the shadow of his disgraced father, who was also a naval aviator. And there is an Agamemnon in Maverick’s life, another pilot (Tom Kazansky, played by Val Kilmer), nicknamed “Iceman,” who constantly baits and challenges Maverick.
Like Achilles, Maverick has a huge chip on his shoulder.
In contrast to the rivalry and the insults, both Maverick and Achilles have loves. We find later that Achilles is attached to Briseis, as we find that Maverick becomes attached to the Top Gun school instructor Charlie (Charlotte Blackwood, played by Kelly McGillis).
But Achilles is truly devoted to his friend Patroclus, as Maverick is to his navigator Goose (Nick Bradshaw, played by Anthony Edwards).
And the climax and hinge of both stories is not the male-female romance of Achilles/Briseis and Maverick/Charlie, but the death of the male friend, Patroclus/Goose.
In both stories, the hero senses that he himself is to blame for his friend’s death. Achilles’ mistake is to let Patroclus go into battle with Achilles’ armor while Achilles is still on strike from the war. He tells Patroclus not to attempt to scale the walls of the city, because it is not his fate to conquer Troy. But Patroclus, drunk with the power of seeming to be Achilles (the armor makes the Trojans quail in fear), ignores Achilles’ advice and is struck down by the god of limits, Apollo.
Maverick, similarly, loses touch with limitations as he goes after glory in the Top Gun school competition. Attempting to best Iceman in a combat exercise, he foolishly loses control of his aircraft and has to ditch in the Pacific Ocean. Goose, sitting behind him in the plane, is dashed head-first into the cockpit canopy as he ejects.
The death of the friend causes a huge change in both heroes. Achilles returns to the war to take revenge on the Trojan who finishes off Patroclus (Hector), and Maverick, in mirror image, withdraws from the Top Gun competition and intends to quit the Navy altogether.
In the dénouement of the stories, the fathers of the heroes loom large. In Top Gun, Maverick is finally told (by his senior instructor, Commander Mike Metcalf, played by Tom Skerritt) the real story of his father’s last battle and death. The elder Mitchell did not fail, as the official account reads, but was a hero. This inspires Maverick to return to his post, knowing that he can redeem himself, that he is not a failure like his father.
In the Iliad, Achilles in his rage has kept the body of Hector, the Trojan who killed Patroclus, and does not want to give it back to the Trojans for burial. But as in Top Gun, an older man (King Priam, the father of Hector) persuades Achilles to relent by putting him in mind of Achilles’ own father.
This scene is worth quoting this at length—one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry ever written:
Priam said… “Remember your father, Achilles, who stands like me on the threshold of old age, whose neighbors harass and bait him, who sits alone without a champion to protect him. But when he hears that you still live, it thrills his heart, and he hopes that one day he might see you return from the war.
But I—I am bereft, I am cursed, for I fathered many sons in this fertile kingdom, yet now none is left.” …
So he spoke, and his speech made Achilles’ tears roll. He took the old man by the hand, and gently pushed him away. And they wept together, Priam for man-slaying Hector while he lay at Achilles' feet, and Achilles for his own father and for Patroclus; and the sound of their keening filled the tent.
In the end, both Maverick and Achilles realize that human connections mean more than military glory. Family is more important than personal achievement.
(For Maverick, there is the extra push toward this conclusion because of Charlie’s involvement in his life. This part is lacking in the Iliad, as we do not see Briseis at the end of the poem.)
I’ll be interested to see what has changed and what has stayed the same in this new-new Top Gun/Iliad/Epic of Gilgamesh. You are welcome to leave your thoughts in the comments once you’ve seen the movie—but no spoilers for now, please!
That would take you right into the danger zone.