Happy Birthday Top Gun

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Last week I tried to get a rise out of our editor Ward Carroll by sending him a link to this incredibly long story* in GQ by Mark Harris that pretty much blames Top Gun for the decline of American cinema. Since he never responded to what I thought would be considered fighting words, I'm bring it up here, right now.

On May 11th, you'll have a chance to buy a Blu-ray/Digital copy version of Top Gun that includes a six-part documentary on the making of the film, a behind-the-scenes featurette, a survival training featurette, interviews with Tom Cruise, four music videos, commentary by producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Tony Scott, co-screenwriter Jack Epps, Jr. and naval experts and a look inside the real "Top Gun."

The advance sale page isn't up yet at Amazon, so make sure you don't order the older Blu-ray disc that's for sale now. It's missing all the special features and there's some complaining in the comments about the source for that 2008 transfer.

Once we get a copy of the new package, we'll let you know how this new version stacks up. In the meantime, read the GQ article and feel free to comment here on the things Mark Harris says about Top Gun. Mark wrote Pictures at a Revolution, an excellent book about the five movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1968, so he's not a dumb guy.

*Note to our commenters: When I say incredibly long story, I mean that GQ spreads it out over four different web pages and the writer doesn't start discussing Top Gun until the top of the second page. Then he goes one for another three pages discussing his theory. It has a lot of words. Complaints about GQ's tiny "next page" button should be addressed to their website.

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