I read an interesting article expressing how TGM depicts a fictional United States, one that acts as if all the catastrophic policy decisions over the past 30 years were never made. It's like it takes place in the United States that we all imagined we'd one day be living in back in 1986. Where there is more diversity (specifically with regard to female pilots which movies back then like ALIENS rightly predicted) yet everything is still merit based and regardless of race or color everyone is still American through and through. In that regard TGM offers an alternate fictional future very much in the same vein as ALIENS with its cocky, badass, US flag waving warriors of the future, etc., except for the fact that TGM actually isn't
set in the future, lol. It's like someone went back to 1986 and grabbed an Infinity Stone allowing Maverick to continue in the good timeline while we're all stuck in this alternate crap one.
I'm just blown away that this film even exists in its current form. You know if Disney had made this movie then there wouldn't be one female fighter pilot (to more accurately reflect the real world percentage of female pilots at 7%), oh no more than
half of them would have been female and Maverick's record of three enemy kills would have long been broken by them. And no way would Ed Harris and Jon Hamm's characters be white males. One or both would be women (probably both) and would take absolute glee in tearing Maverick down for being a toxic dinosaur.
But this movie celebrated its female characters without elevating them above the males. I loved Jennifer Connelly's character and Phoenix was one of my favorite pilots. Imagine that. And I don't know what your crowd was like but in my auditorium there were a
lot of women. And none of them seemed to be wishing that a woman put Maverick in his place. In fact they all seemed to be totally rooting for him. And they let out a collective "awww" during moments like when he said that he kept Rooster's mother's wishes a secret so that he wouldn't resent her memory, applauded when it was revealed that he safely ejected, and so on. Why? Because they
like strong males! Imagine that.
I just can't say it enough, I'm blown away that this movie even exists and am so glad that it's getting the appreciation we all know it deserves.