Both of these are far from perfect films, but TOP GUN's iconography alone should get it into The Canon. Minority Report is a pretty good effort by people who are capable of more.Įven if this were just a competition between MINORITY REPORT and the TOP GUN poster, the winner would be clear. It's still a notable moment in film history. So I'll hold my nose and vote for Top Gun, unintentionally hilarious homoerotic Navy commercial though it may be. Minority Report is a good film with a good message, but not especially notable in the careers of Tom Cruise or Steven Spielberg (it's not even the best film Spielberg made that year) for both Cruise and Tony Scott, I'd say Top Gun definitely is. Perhaps it's not influential in many good ways (you can draw a straight line between this and the Michael Bay Transformers travesties), but it's influential nonetheless. It's iconic and influential, much more so than Minority Report.
So if I have to choose a movie that future generations should watch in order to understand something important about cinema history, then it's clearly Top Gun. I wasn't convinced by Amy's poor arguments against the latter (the plot is just "bolted on"? WTF?), but Tom's argument that Top Gun is more memorable despite not being as well-made or well-written? That's 100% true. just isn't as much fun.Īnyway, I am also surprised to be swayed by the podcast arguments that Top Gun is more worthy of a Canon spot despite not being as good a movie or artistic statement as Minority Report. A choice that forces people to vote without enthusiasm for a mediocre entry. The original versus concept seemed more like a chance to pit two worthy films against each other in a difficult choice. MINORITY REPORT is the better movie, but TOP GUN is far more deserving of a place in The Canon.įirst off, I think we've had too many of these "versus" episodes between two movies that are not particularly Canon-worthy. *Everyone* knows this movie, even if they've never actually seen it. TOP GUN, on the other hand, is goofy slice of '80s cheese that hasn't aged particularly well, but it was a monumental film for one of our premier movie stars, it was a seminal piece of '80s culture, and its legacy still persists in the popular zeitgeist.
MINORITY REPORT is a very fun sci-fi romp, but it's not even close to Spielberg's best movie, or Cruise's best movie, it's not had a particularly strong impact on the world of filmmaking, nor has it persisted in the broader pop culture.
Neither qualifies for The Canon on sheer quality, so you have to look at other factors. What it came down to is that – while MINORITY REPORT might be better – neither film is great. This is a question that's always been interesting to me when defining what qualifies a movie for The Canon: is it more important for a film to be good or for it to be important? This week, we have a versus episode that directly challenges that debate in that the obviously better film (sorry, Amy) is also clearly less culturally significant. The best I can hope for is that watching it would drive someone to watch Scott's other, better films. Still argue that Minority Report has more coherent plotting and character work as well as a grander sense of purpose, but I can't deny that Top Gun is the more relevant film just because I hate the way you can identify which act you're in by which song is playing on repeat. Its sense of ra-ra America masculinity reads pretty toxic now, but it's impossible to deny that those sensibilities were the dominant American outlook basically until after 9/11. I think there's an argument for the way the film's production design and visual style influenced action films after, but Top Gun epitomizes a time. Top Gun is a touchstone in a way Minority Report is not. Not the rather petty arguments Amy and that one dude aimed at it, but the point made at the very beginning of the episode about cultural relevance. Minority Report is–by far–the superior film, but I was convinced by the discussion.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I have to cast my vote for Top Gun.