Bombers B-52 (1957)
You won’t find this movie on too many lists of the best aviation movies of all time, but it’s not unlike Top Gun in being a notable example with excellent aerial scenes combined with a so-so plot involving unnecessary masculine conflict and romantic drama. Also like Top Gun, Bombers B-52 is set during peacetime (well, like Top Gun, the Cold War is ongoing) and had the full support of the US Military in a way that wound up serving as propaganda and aided in the recruitment of pilots and other Navy and Air Force personnel during that down time period.
In his book A Companion to the Action Film, James Kendrick extensively writes about Bombers B-52 and for a stretch compares it to Top Gun, ultimately noting their differences as representative of their respective decades within the Cold War era (the “massive retaliation” ’50s versus the “flexible response” ’80s). Among their contrasts, including a stark distinction between the types of aircraft on display, both in their military and cinematic functions, Kendrick notes that “Top Gun replaces the dangerous testing of technology itself in Bombers B-52 with the dangerous testing of pilots that handle the technology…the film examines the ‘human resource’ integrated into the technology.”
Men of the Fighting Lady (1954)
Two films based on the writing of James Michener came out in 1954, both of them set during the Korean War and featuring combat footage involving some of the first carrier-based jet fighters: F9F Panthers. Paramount’s The Bridges at Toko-Ri is slightly preferred over Men of the Fighting Lady, but the latter, which features Michener as a character and narrator as well as Yours, Mine and Ours co-star Van Johnson in a leading role, is more focused on the general experience of being a fighter pilot positioned off a carrier, additionally adapted from another anecdotal yet non-Michener-penned article as well as inspired by a similarly titled 1944 documentary (see two entries down). It also has a few scenes of danger and death that correlate to moments in Top Gun. But after Men of the Fighting Lady, watch The Bridges of Toko-Ri, and then if you like that you should also look at Toward the Unknown, which also stars William Holden, there as a test pilot.
Twelve O’Clock High (1949)
This movie came out after another very similar film of the same year (Command Decision) — and actually had held back its release as a result of the duel — and both films have, since their release, similarly been used by the US military for officer and leadership training purposes. But Twelve O’Clock High is more notable in relation to Top Gun for the Pentagon’s support of and influence on the two productions. Like with the Tom Cruise blockbuster, the US Military insisted on script changes for Twelve O’Clock High so that it wouldn’t show certain negative aspects of being a pilot. However, here it was more about their psychology rather than the physical hazards of flying jets. Also interestingly enough, early in his career, Top Gun co-star Tom Skerritt appeared in a number of episodes of the TV series based on this film.
If you like Twelve O’Clock High, you’ll want to watch more aviation movies scripted by Beirne Lay Jr., including the aforementioned Toward the Unknown, as well as his two Oscar-nominated efforts: the romance-heavy Hiroshima-bombing docudrama Above and Beyond (1952) and the Paramount-produced Strategic Air Command (1955), which like Bombers B-52 concerns the titular Cold War-era SAC command segment of the Air Force — and was made with their full cooperation.
Eyes of the Navy (1940)
It’s about time for an obligatory documentary pick, and the Oscar-nominated Eyes of the Navy is a short and sweet example of an early military recruitment ad in the guise of nonfiction cinema. MGM made this doc with the cooperation of the US Navy ahead of America’s involvement in World War II and it specifically sells young men on becoming Navy pilots, with plenty of shots of planes taking off from and landing on an aircraft carrier, a la the montages of Top Gun — speaking of which, this film features the original USS Enterprise carrier while Top Gun takes place on and features exteriors of the later nuclear-powered Enterprise.
The 1944 Oscar-winning doc feature The Fighting Lady is also worth checking out for its real aircraft carrier combat footage from the war. There’s also 1943’s Don’t Kill Your Friends, a doc short produced by the Navy about fighter pilot safety, as well as the 1947 World War II fighter pilot doc short Thunderbolt, directed by both William Wyler and John Sturges.
The Dawn Patrol (1930) and Hell’s Angels (1930)
The Howard Hughes-produced Hell’s Angels set a standard for aerial spectacle for quite a while, though it did so with a ridiculous amount of money, stunts that were too dangerous (with the deaths to back that up), and lots of footage that Hughes could and would save for or recycle in other movies. But Hughes was also threatened by immediate competition and sued the similar-sounding Howard Hawks film The Dawn Patrol, which wound up released first and then eventually won the legal battle as well.
The Dawn Patrol is worth seeing for its early Maverick-like hotshot pilot characters and its influence over aviation films for a while, even being remade just eight years later in 1938, which also saw the release of the additionally recommended Hawks-scripted classic Test Pilot. And here’s even more suggested viewing, specifically for films with other Maverick-like characters: Flying Tigers (1942), High Flight (1957), and The War Lover (1962).
The Military Air-Scout (1911) and Wings (1927)
Here are the great grandparents of Top Gun, two early and very important aviation-focused films that involved the participation of the US military. The Military Air-Scout (a.k.a. The Military Scout) is a two-reeler (twenty-minutes long) that employed the expertise and stunt flying talents of Lt. Henry Arnold, with permission from the US Army. He had learned to fly directly from the Wright Brothers and while he toyed with quitting the military to become an actor following this gig, he stuck with his more suitable profession and wound up a five-star general and one of the leaders of the US air command during World War II. The Military Air-Scout, which I actually can’t find as being definitely existing or at least available, is also interesting for prophetically being set during a war with European nations three years into the future — in 1914, the year World War I broke out.
While The Military Air-Scout is accepted as the first real aviation film and also the first to involve US military support, Paramount’s Wings was another pioneer in both the genre and the participation of the US War Department. They provided equipment, including dozens of planes, as well as thousands of soldiers to serve as extras. It was a good investment of resources since, like Top Gun, Wings would be seen as promoting the military like it’s a feature-length recruitment ad. Meanwhile, director William A. Wellman, a combat pilot during World War I, brought his own experiences as inspiration, and the movie’s screenwriter and one of its stars had also both served as pilots during the war and additionally functioned as advisors. Like Top Gun, it was one of the biggest movies of its year, as well as an Oscar winner, though Wings’ distinction with the latter is that it was the first-ever recipient of the Academy’s (equivalent) award for Best Picture.
Related Topics: Movie DNA, Top Gun
