‘Top Gun: Maverick’ earned its best picture Oscar nod by lifting up a battered America | Opinion
Editor’s note: Updated to reflect Academy Award nominations announced Tuesday.
Why was “Top Gun: Maverick” so popular — and worthy of the Oscar nomination for Best Picture, announced Tuesday? Now, let’s not overthink it.
It’s a fun big budget action film, full of Hollywood superstars. It also helps that it’s not another tedious comic-book movie or repetitive entry in a children’s franchise.
But there’s another reason: It’s pro-America.
Its patriotism isn’t the kind with sweeping shots of the Lincoln Memorial or trite-yet-stirring speeches about democracy and freedom. It’s not obnoxious or even overt. But it presents a United States — and its military — that’s clearly projecting power for the right reasons, to keep an unnamed rogue country from getting nuclear weapons.
No character is perfect, least of all Tom Cruise’s Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. But we’re the good guys. And we’re not sorry about it.
There’s a reason this works now in particular. After years of toxic politics, the failures of the pandemic and the shame of Jan. 6, topped by our current economic woes, we’re in a slump.
Bashing America has become a feature on both of our political extremes. The left wants to dwell on America’s history of racism and how much of it remains, along with economic inequity and other ills. A segment of the right is convinced that America is culturally corrupted, full of vice and little virtue.
Some so-called conservatives even want to look to Hungary, as if a small, homogeneous eastern European country contains lessons for the U.S.
There’s also satisfaction in knowing that, unlike most corporate entertainment cowards, the producers of the “Top Gun” sequel took a chance and said no to China. Maverick’s jacket features a Taiwanese flag, and a Chinese company reportedly pulled out of backing the movie in part over its pro-American tone.
The movie’s wild box-office success shows that not all the profit has to come from China’s big market. Hollywood can make money and still keep a little of its pride.
Academy Award voters lean dramatically (see what I did there?) to the left, and many won’t be able to overlook America’s flaws to celebrate its unique gains by choosing “Top Gun: Maverick” as best picture.
But the American people have already declared it — and their beloved country — a winner.
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 3:01 PM.
