It's about a handful of guys competing against each other at a top tier Navy flight school, sure, but Sarah, Alex and special guest Clementine Ford unpack Top Gun's dad themes and there is plenty to sort through.
What happens when, haunted by questions about your father's death and legacy, you become the cockiest fighter pilot in the Navy?
Top Gun is, of course, the story of Maverick, Goose, Iceman and a bunch of 1980s cool dudes competing for the Top Gun trophy but it's also stuffed to the brim with dad themes. For Maverick, who grew up haunted by the specter of his father, everyone he encounters becomes—whether he knows it or not—a father figure. We talk all the dad themes, military themes, and—of course—homoeroticism Tony Scott stuffed into this 1986 classic.
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Moonstruck with Madame Clairevoyant
Feeling Feral and Batman Returns
Abandonment Fears and Home Alone w. Anne Thériault
Oh, Fudge: A Christmas Story w. Mara Wilson
Literal holiday madness and Christmas Vacation w. Sovereign Syre
Heroic Dads and Clear and Present Danger w. Jamelle Bouie
BONUS EPISODE: Saved by the Bell [Patreon episode]
Demystifying Dad and Big Fish with Guest Louisa Smith
Charismatic con men, grief and The Royal Tenenbaums
Invisibility AND masculinity in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Robot Daddies and Terminator 2 [with Michael Hobbes!]
Plague, abandonment and Roy Cohn in Angels in America
Absentee dads, legacy, Frankenstein and Young Frankenstein
Self-Absorption, Dad and The Squid and the Whale
Manhood and Friday
Deescalation with Dad... and Kevin Costner
Surviving Dad and A Nightmare on Elm Street
Disappointing Dad and Dirty Dancing
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