I don't know if everything happens for a reason, but owning Top Gun on laserdisc certainly did. Back in the waning days of the format, I found an advert for the Columbia House Laserdisc club in an American magazine. Having already expertly worked the system for upwards of a hundred CDs and the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation series on VHS, I was thrilled to be able to bolster my LD collection. I had to have them shipped to my friend's parents' house in Michigan and collect them whenever he would return from a visit.
Now, for those that don't remember the glory days of Columbia House, you would start your subscription to the service by obtaining a good chunk of records, tapes, or discs for just one penny (!) and then be on the hook to make five (or so) more purchases to close out your contract. There was a monthly pick that would be sent to you automatically, meaning you bought it, if you didn't decline it. So, the only catch to an otherwise sweet deal was that, if you weren't paying attention, you'd buy full-price (see: over-priced) items until your contract was fulfilled. If you were on top of things, though, you could decline the monthly items and purchase something cheaper and clear your servitude that way.
Out of the many times that I'd signed up and fulfilled a subscription, only once did I mess up and inadvertently buy an overpriced monthly pick. Care to guess which one it was?
This seventy-something dollar laserdisc of a movie that I never really cared for has been in my possession for 30-35 years and I'd watched it once - out of obligation to, and frustration from, my error.
And after all this time ... it's still fine. I can see why it was the number one movie, and why it served as an inspirational advertisement to join the Air Force, and why it was instrumental in creating the stunt-loving, daredevil Tom Cruise that we all know and love today, but it's really just an okay movie.
Top Gun: Maverick, on the other hand, is much more fun.
Speaking of fun: Platoon wasn't.
A dark, grimy, uncomfortable movie that won the following year's Oscar for Best Picture, and part of a rich history of films (and books, and songs, and more) trying to understand the sins of war, but in this case there's no movement to absolve any of those sins. Everything unfolds in front of the audience without a heavy-handed highlighting of right and wrong; awful things just happen and we move on to the next awful thing.
I can't say that I enjoyed watching it, and in a certain light I don't need a movie like this to illustrate to me that war is atrocious and hurtful to all. So, was it worth the watch? Insofar as completing this project it was, but other than I didn't need this in my life.
It's also hard not to acknowledge the pay-it-forward boon that this double bill gave to the creation of Hot Shots! and Hot Shots! Part Deux. Even though the latter was more Rambo-based than it was Platoon, there's no doubt that Sheen learned how to handle himself in a military fashion in this role and he played that off perfectly for both Hot Shots! movies.
So, for that I owe both Top Gun and Platoon a big thank you.
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