Chic[k] Pilot laments the top ten list, as selected by 10k readers of Air Venture:
The champion is “Top Gun,” the 1986 blockbuster that starred Tom Cruise (an EAA member), Kelly McGillis, Tom Skerritt, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards and several other stars in a drama based at the U.S. Navy’s “Top Gun” fighter training school. The movie, which was the biggest grossing film in the U.S. that year, will be shown during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2007 at the event’s Fly-In Theater, presented by Ford Motor Company and Eclipse Aviation. ……. The finalists were the 10 most-nominated films by EAA members earlier this year, who submitted more than 140 aviation movies. Others in the final poll included “Battle of Britain” (1969) with 11.8 percent; “Spirit of St. Louis” (1957) and “The Great Waldo Pepper” (1975), each with 8.6 percent; “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” (1965) 7.1 percent; “The Flight of the Phoenix” (1965) 5.2 percent; “The High and the Mighty” (1954) with 4.0 percent and “The Blue Max” (1966) with 4.0 percent
CP posted the top five in list form, which probably wouldn’t have killed Air Venture to do themselves:
1. Top Gun2. Twelve O’Clock High
3. Memphis Belle
4. Battle of Britain
5. Spirit of St. Louis
Top Gun over Memphis Belle? I’m sure it had nothing to do with the screenplay: “She’s a civilian, so you DO NOT salute her.”
Stratigic Air Command starring Jimmy Stewart,By the way that is the last movie that the US Air Force gave full participation in!
I am with you, Deb. No technical experience necessary! I have an aero. engg degree and am a USAF Reservist and agree with you completely.
Pluis, what Mustang said, SAC is a great movie.
Top Gun was terrible as a flying movie.
Top Gun, yuck. There’s this, too: http://www.ieatpaint.com/topgun/
Aww c’mon, you mean Airplane didn’t make the list??
“Billy, have you ever seen a grown man naked?”
“Roger Under”
Hell, it was better than Top Gun…….
Hunt for Red October.
There is an aircraft carrier and some flying around the North Atlantic in a helo. That qualifies it, doesn’t it?
My guess is bullnav was a pinger….
Where does THE BLUE MAX starring the ravishing Ursula Andress figure in to the equation?
The sight of Ursula writhing in the sheets ought ALONE to raise it in the rankings….
The question should be narrowed a bit.
Which is the best movie of AIR COMBAT?
And which is the best movie featuring scenes of aviation?
STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND is a great movie, with endless flying, but no war operations.
COMMAND DECISION starring Clarke Gable and Walter Pidgeon is a movie about air operations but doesn’t have any real scenes of air combat or bombardment.
DAWN PATROL starring David Niven, Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone is a sensational movie of the harrowing plight of a squadron of the RFC during the Great War.
For war movie aficionados, it’s an absolute must see.
THE BRIDGES AT TOKO RI is an exceptional movie, AND WHAT’S MORE, follows precisely the novel, which I’ve read.
There is something that I would like to suggest, though it’s not a movie per se, it’s a mini series.
It’s called PIECE OF CAKE.
It’s about a spitfire squadron during the Second World War.
The book is a riot, and the movie has some great aerial sequences.
There is one more movie that I would like to suggest, it stars Robert Wagner as the copilot and Steve McQueen as the pilot. It’s called THE WAR LOVER.
McQueen plays a brash and bold B-17 pilot, whereas Wagner plays his more cautious copilot.
There are some great combat scenes, and the movie captures well the superstitions that often run riot amongst combat aircrews.
Far-fetched, sci-fi plotlines aside, “The Final Countdown” (1982) has my vote. Great cooperation from the Navy (starring VF-84 “Jolly Rogers”) and the scene where the F-14 nearly hits the water is pretty cool (apparently, when the movie was first screened, CINCAIRLANT was there along with the crew of that Tomcat… he was not thrilled to see that he almost lost one of his planes and crew to the making of a movie).
Joel forgot to mention the best line from that movie, “SPLASH THE ZEROES!”
AND DEB, the name of the movie that you recall is taken from the biography of Bader himself, it’s called REACH FOR THE SKY, it stars Kenneth Moore as Bader.
Moore might be remembered by some as an officer who commands from Britain the engagement that sinks the Bismarck, in the movie of that name, SINK THE BISMARK, starring him and his aide, Dana Winters.
TOP GUN????????
Holding vomit bag to face……..wait..
first scotch…then vomit…throwing away good scotch…
lol Richard…
probably one of the worst written military movies of all time…
anyway, that’s Noonan with two Os..
there is a movie i saw on tv. It was about a young boy in love with aviation, his best friend who is a girl ends up becoming his mechanic at a flight school he works at flying extra 300′s. near the begining of the movie he builds his own flying prototype and nearly kills himself in it. the name of the movie escapes me. anyone know?
“Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” has a great, REAL helicopter crash scene. It is a great flick if you’re really bored.
The Right Stuff! How can anyone miss that out
Hi…I´m an aviation and aviation movies enthusiast from Portugal. I’ve seen most of the movies mentioned in these “Top Aviation Movies” comments incl. the “Piece of Cake” TV series (bloody good show).I have some on DVD. “Top Gun” is definitely not my number 1…I only watch it for the F14vsA4vsF5 action. I would like to throw some movie names that I didn’t see in this forum:
among many others..”Dark Blue World”,a Czech movie about the Czech fighter pilots in the RAF during WW2; two excellent movies of the Vietnam War era,”BAT 21″,based upon a true story,if I remember correctly; “Flight of the Intruder”,that features a real MIG,contrary to “Top Gun” and “The Malta Story”,with Alec Guiness and fantastic combat footage taken in the Malta and Mediterranean theatres during WW2. Among some of the most recent aviation movies, there’s also the French movie “Les Chevaliers du Ciel” (Knights of the Sky),based on French comic book characters,with real footage of some of the aircraft used by the French AF nowadays,incl. Mirage 2000 fighter jets. That’s all for now. Enjoy the flight. :)
Hi again…I also would like to mention an interesting TV movie or TV series about the development of the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow interceptor,with Dan Aykroyd,if I’m not mistaken,”Project Arrow” (?).
Enjoy the flight! :)
Thanks everyone,
I’m starting a collection of aviation movies, and this is cool.
I think topgun captured a little of the competitive drive of today fighter pilot training. The bull crappy hollywood guy meets girl marketing formula that was probably added in by those who controlled the money sucked. Read Bogeys and Bandits: the making of a fighter pilot by Robert Gandt. It’s a cool book Topgun gave me a since of speed from the cockpit of the tomcat that had to be hard to get. The director did awsome in that respect.
I think Pearl Harbor the flight was pretty nice!!!
I’ve just come across ‘Jet Pilot’ (John Wayne, Janet Leigh) which finished filming in 1953 but wasn’t released until 1957. I’d never heard of the film before but was thrilled at some of the early Cold War jets on display.There are really great formation shots of F-86 Sabres, a black T-33 used as a ‘Soviet’ plane and an F-94 Starfire chasing a B-36 at night. You’ ve also got a ‘Soviet’B-29 with the Bell X-1 as a ‘Soviet’ ‘parasite fighter’. Quite a mix of rare aircraft in flight which more than makes up for the tendentious and totally unbelievable plot for anyone interested in US aircraft of the early Fifties.