Top Gun: Maverick and the Nature of Duality
Might be time to start a movie review series.
There are many interpretations I have heard for the REAL story behind the Biblical Garden of Eden event.
Some interpret it through sex: the Angelina Jolie-inspired Original Sin that signifies the first time Adam got lucky, before subsequently going forth to multiply.
Some interpret it through race: that it was the original mixing of the earthly black and otherworldly white bloodlines to produce the hybrid human race currently tearing itself apart.
Some interpret it through a more generic spiritual lens: as a metaphysical, even moral descent from a previous ‘perfect’ state — of integration and coherency — into a lesser state: of fragmentation and duality.
The first two are a bit spicy for my first official DTWH movie review, so let’s go with the last take (the fact that I wrote an article about it in pre-Substack days has nothing to do with it).
What does living spiritually in a world of duality entail? Essentially (in my humble opinion) to see the absolute extremes of everything in dichotomy — the good and the bad, the light and the dark, the divine and the shadow — and to (if you seek true guru status) reconcile and integrate them into a whole.
With that in mind: what redemption can we find in the latest war-mongering-justifying, demiurge-summoning, spotlessly-executed Tom Cruise Hollywood propaganda piece?
Some, believe it or not.
Look, I’m no elitist movie snob here; I enjoy some vacuous escape from reality time too. But oh boy, was there some cheese on this Americana pizza.
Tom Cruise’s always immaculate stubble.
His moustachioed psuedo-protege, who teams up with Tom to blow up a few mysteriously raceless and nationless Bad Guys (what a cop-out move, not to antagonise a specific enemy in today’s geopolitical climate).
That cringe beach football scene with the gratuitous pec and bicep flexing to bring the ladies in and back again.
The fact that not even one of the good guys died (lol screw your spoilers). Not 1! No, old mute Val Kilmer doesn’t count — I mean in combat.
Because other people died in combat, didn’t they? At least a couple of those mysteriously raceless and nationless Bad Guys got incinerated in mid-air, and who knows how many more hapless lab-coat wearers thanks to that unarguably badass underground base explosion.
Of course, we don’t need to care about what happened to them: they are the Approved Enemy to US Exceptionalism, who have dared to go against an undoubtedly fair and reasonable NATO disarmament treaty because butter wouldn’t melt in our forked tongue mouths.
But yet…
Tom’s always impeccable stubble.
Landing it without the front wheels like a boss.
Getting pwned by moustachioed psuedo-protege for originally telling psuedo-protege not to think, but then accusing him AFTER HE JUST SAVED YOUR LIFE of not thinking.
(Side note: the core moral message of the movie — telling young Americans not to think — really feels devastatingly accurate for our current propagandised ‘Rona times).
And let’s not forget: Getting the Hot babe at the end.
Say what you want about that child-loving, Satan-worshiping cesspool: no one does The Hero’s Journey like Hollywood. And this is Peak Hero’s Journey. I know Peak Hero’s Journey, because it is the movies when my dude gets the most emotional. I used to think he enjoyed the bloodlust of all these blockbuster escapades, but thankfully it looks like he is just there for the universal spirituality that underpins them.
Last post, I suggested that the most convincing explanation for the Meaning of Life that I have come across is to become a more moral person. But that is a bit boring, I admit.
Perhaps The Hero’s Journey, as Joseph “Follow Your Bliss” Campbell suggested, is the ultimate life cheat code, or archetypal path. Judging by Box Office takings, it certainly does trigger something dormant inside of us — perhaps without discrimination across the human spectrum.
Hmm, maybe not completely. I’m guessing the psychopaths get their kicks in other ways. That said, they are more than happy to utilise The Hero’s Journey to spectacular CGI effect to manipulate the masses into consenting to their shamelessly obvious agenda.
Can a piece of art be inherently satanic in its intention to further enable the inherently satanic agenda of the globalist (i’ll be kind and leave The West out of it) military industrial complex, yet also be spiritually transcendent in its ability to depict The Hero’s Journey?
If you answered yes: welcome to Duality, comrades. It might soon be the only way that you will still be able to watch your favourite Hollywood movies.
I didn’t even know this movie existed and had to go watch the trailer. Admittedly, I’ve never even seen the original Top Gun (don’t judge) but it feels like the same formulaic Hollywood swill that comes out to intoxicate Americans with patriotism. I appreciate the DTWH review and looking forward to more of those.
here Ya go, DTWH denizens...'Hollywood: the military’s wingman',...https://download1515.mediafire.com/0dnjjeg6ftug/a9xt9wdmb6e6e29/DOD-PAAs-Addendums-Top-Gun-2.pdf
(o n l y) 84 pgs!! of Pentagon's
'key talking points' [sic] FOR the TGM script
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mintpressnews.com /top-gun-maverick-military-propaganda-official-documents/281077/
"Top Gun: Maverick" is Military Propaganda. Official Documents Prove It
6/13/2022 “Top Gun: Maverick” is a box-office smash, a massive hit with both critics and the public alike. Navy and Air Force units across the country have set up recruitment stalls inside movie halls, hoping to sign up individuals buzzed after watching the high-paced aviation action. But documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the movie was made only after an agreement was signed between Hollywood and the Pentagon, with the Navy insisting on “weav[ing] in” their “key talking points” in exchange for granting the production company extensive access to military hardware.
Investigative journalist Tom Secker, author of “National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood,” was one of those who obtained the documents. Secker explained that “Top Gun: Maverick” was made with an explicit agenda behind it, telling MintPress:
It’s about rehabilitation of the military’s image in the wake of numerous failed wars. The film also helps foreground human pilots flying an actual combat mission – something very rare in these days of high-altitude airstrikes and drone warfare. It helps distract from all the drone pilots who’ve spoken out about the misery and horror inherent in that job.”..
Foreign policy planners famously nicknamed the public’s reticence to authorize military intervention in the 80s the “Vietnam Syndrome.” The original “Top Gun’” arrived just in time to clean up this image and clear the way for a more palatable high-tech vision of imperialism and ultimately the Persian Gulf War. “Top Gun: Maverick” arrives at a similar moment in the shadow of Iraq and Afghanistan. And we will likely see a similar rebooting of the U.S. military machine.”
Stahl and Secker are co-producers of the new film “Theaters of War: How the Pentagon and CIA took Hollywood.”
A mountain of military hardware
In over 100 pages of contracts, the military agreed to allow Paramount access to a mountain of their most expensive hardware in exchange for what amounts to significant editorial control over the content and tone of the movie – an arrangement that is remarkably common in today’s environment...
Before his death, “Top Gun” director Tony Scott felt guilty about making a movie that glamorizes military life, lamenting:
All these kids must hate me,
because they all signed on thinking they’re gonna be fighter pilots pulling broads all over the world, and they all ended up eleven stories down on some shitty old aircraft carrier stuck in the Indian Ocean.
Yet the reality of the profession is not just more boring, but far more grizzly. PTSD and suicide are exceptionally common in the profession, as pilots struggle to come to terms with the staggering amount of destruction they are required to carry out...
Hollywood: the military’s wingman
“Top Gun: Maverick” has been produced at a time when the United States is currently throttling Iran with illegal and deadly sanctions. In early 2020, the Trump administration assassinated top Iranian general and statesman Qassem Soleimani, and influential figures in the United States have called for an unprovoked nuclear attack on the country.
Yet none of this context is mentioned, leaving the legality of the depicted attack unquestioned. As Stahl told MintPress, the basic assumption is that “the U.S. has the right to violate international law and strike any country for any reason.” “Imagine if this film came out of Iran and was about striking an Israeli or U.S. nuclear facility,” he said. “Heads would explode with accusations of hard-line propaganda.”
Therefore, “Top Gun: Maverick” falls in line in promoting a remarkably militaristic society; one that spends almost as much on war as every other nation on Earth combined. Celebrations of militarism are everywhere in the United States, from sporting events to cinemas, feeding into an overwhelming cult of troop worship.
The military works exceptionally hard to maintain a positive image and has found a willing collaborator in the entertainment industry. Stahl and Secker’s investigations have found that the Pentagon and CIA have exercised direct control over more than 2,500 films and television shows. These include not only military-based blockbusters like “American Sniper,” “Pearl Harbor” and “A Few Good Men,” but also a host of light entertainment shows like “The Price is Right,” “Teen Idol” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” A decent rule of thumb is that if the title you are watching includes the military or security services, then those institutions will likely be co-producing the work, meaning they themselves decide how they are depicted...
In this sense, then, film and television in America have slowly turned into a military-entertainment complex in which hundreds of millions of Americans are fed a steady diet of Pentagon-sponsored pro-war propaganda. And they are not even aware of it.
At one time, Cruise felt a good deal of remorse for becoming part of the war machine, telling Playboy magazine:
Some people felt that “Top Gun’”was a right-wing film to promote the Navy. And a lot of kids loved it. But I want the kids to know that that’s not the way war is – that “Top Gun” was just an amusement park ride, a fun film with a PG-13 rating that was not supposed to be reality. That’s why I didn’t go on and make Top Gun II and III and IV and V. That would have been irresponsible.”