Top Gun is an iconic American action film, remembered for propelling Tom Cruise into the public eye and Hollywood stardom. While it did not fare that well with critics, it was a big hit at the box office and was lauded for its special effects and the performances of the two leads, Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. It grossed $356 million and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the romantic 80s power anthem, "Take My Breath Away."
The film was inspired by an article in California magazine about the training regimen for fighter pilots at an air station in California. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer was interested in making the film, and hired Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. to write the screenplay, and the U.S. Navy reviewed the script for the film, approving of the final draft.
The film was the highest grossing film of 1986, coming in at number one its opening weekend. While numbers were good, critics were mixed on the film. New Yorker critic Pauline Kael wrote of the film, "What is the movie selling? It's just selling, because that's what the producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and the director, Tony ('Make It Glow') Scott, know how to do. Selling is what they think moviemaking is about. The result is a new 'art' form: the self-referential commercial."
