Happened to watch Top Gun: Maverick, yesterday. A brilliantly made movie, transported one back 35 years. Circa 1987. A bunch of teenagers, in The Institution that Builds Men. Watching Top Gun. At that age, the flying, the bikes, the Ray Bans and of course Kelly McGills, impacted us deeply. The effect was felt by me yesterday when each line, each scene and each song from the original just came back to me. Great balls of fire.
But there was another movie which deserves Mention in Credits. A little survivor movie called "The Blue Lagoon". On a day when the auditorium was jam packed, one could hear all kinds of sound that only hormonal overdosed guys of that age could produce. The only difference being, the Commandant with his better half and all the faculty were up there in the balcony. We bottom feeders knew we had a long night ahead of us, but that was still a couple of hours away. Till then there was so much to 'observe and absorb'.
Well, the movie ended, the staff left. You could cut through the silence with a knife. If one paid attention, one could hear grinding of teeth and drilling saliva of the appointments. In walked the adjutant. Maj Anil Alagh, man amongst men. It was reputed that he could motivate corpses to get up and drill ( none of us actually had to test him on this). "Bloody jokers", he thundered. "It became embarrassing on the balcony hearing those noises from below. The Commandant asked me what to do with you guys". The silence became thicker. "I told him that it was very normal at your age and I would have been worried if you were not like this" The whole academy breathed as one. "But one thing worries me", we held our breath collectively again. "You see Brooke Shields and make such sounds, it's understandable" breathe in. "But when you make the same sounds when you see Mr Atkins, then it is something to worry about, carry on". That was the time this man could have asked for anything.
Brings back to a dialogue, from Maverick. "Officers like you are soon going to be extinct. Yes sir, but not today"