Top Gun vs. Les Chevaliers du Ciel

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There may be other films in the Jets Wot Go Fast genre - to say nothing of various animes - but these two are, I think, the only real contenders for the throne.

My take is that while Top Gun is in most conventional respects - characterisation, script, etc. - the better film, as jet wank Chevaliers comes out on top with its aerial photography serving up shots that Top Gun is unable to match with its reliance on ground-based photography. Chevaliers also features a greater variety of environments - culminating in a stunning sequence over Paris - which works to offset its perhaps less iconic cast of Mirages, Airbuses and Alpha Jets against Top Gun's F-14s, A-4s and F-5s.

Wot say you?

 

[John Clark]

I like Les Chevaliers du Ciel more (Released here as Sky Fighters).

Top Gun is a fun film, but I thought Les Chevaliers looked better.

 

[J.T.B.]

I won't vote because I've never seen Les Chevaliers but it would be hard to be worse than Top Gun, an awful, contrived, formulaic piece of garbage. The big old Tomcat was a beauty, though.

Bridges at Toko Ri, on the other hand... Now there's a jet flying movie.

--Justin

 

[Switch]

Some footage from Les Chevaliers du Ciel:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEe3xfWfkG8[/yt]

Bridges at Toko Ri, on the other hand... Now there's a jet flying movie.

I haven't seen it, but starring William Holden and Grace Kelly? I can believe it.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Ack! It's all a mirage!


And Iron Eagle FTW. It's so bad that it's good.

 

[Switch]

Ack! It's all a mirage!

I see what you did there.

It would've been great if the filmmakers had been able to use Rafales as well, alas...

I like Les Chevaliers du Ciel more (Released here as Sky Fighters).

My rule of thumb for referencing non-English films is to go with whichever title sounds better. So it's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but Les Chevaliers du Ciel.

 

[Holdfast]

And Iron Eagle FTW. It's so bad that it's good.

I rewatched Iron Eagle for the first time in years the other day. My god, it's awful. I loved it.

Top Gun is one of the most wonderfully quotable and hilarious films of all time. Pure pantomime in movie format, and utterly brilliant. Marvellous entertainment.

Haven't seen Chevaliers so didn't vote in the poll. Looks pretty from that trailer, but I didn't get any sense of revelry in its silliness that Top Gun exudes. These sort of movies really need that, because they're generally so OTT than to play them straight is tough.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I will concede that TG was one of my favorite films from when it came out--when I was five--to about age 10 or so. Of course, during that same period, I liked TWOK just as much, so what does that tell you?

 

[Holdfast]

I will concede that TG was one of my favorite films from when it came out--when I was five--to about age 10 or so. Of course, during that same period, I liked TWOK just as much, so what does that tell you?

You liked camp shoot-em-ups as a kid?

Top Gun is even more camp than TWOK though, so is superior.

 

[Switch]

Haven't seen Chevaliers so didn't vote in the poll. Looks pretty from that trailer, but I didn't get any sense of revelry in its silliness that Top Gun exudes. These sort of movies really need that, because they're generally so OTT than to play them straight is tough.

It's definitely over the top, but doesn't take itself too seriously, although I find that's as much an effect of the rapid-fire editing as anything else. There are a couple brutal moments in the film that feel heavier than they actually are precisely because they seem so out of place.

Here's a (fan?) trailer featuring some actual human beings:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6SfE7ygSDw[/yt]

 

[Holdfast]

^ That's a lot more fun. I'd watch that.

 

[Forbin]

Top Gun had no air-to-air photography?

 

[Switch]

Top Gun had no air-to-air photography?

Some, but most was ground-based, which limited the stuff they could do. No zooming around the clouds, for instance.

Is there any word on whether Top Gun 2 is going to use real aircraft or succumb to the temptation of CGI?

 

[Admiral2]

I'm American and it had F-14s and T-33s in Russian colors.


TOP. GUN.

 

[zakkrusz]

Both were pretty great, but Top Gun's story was a bit more interesting.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I'm American and it had F-14s and T-33s in Russian colors.


TOP. GUN.

For the record, they were T-38s the F-5 variant. T-33 is (I think.) a variant of the F-80.

And, I should add, the crown of best air-to-air cinematography still goes to Battle of Britain. Truly brilliant.

 

[captcalhoun]

i loved Top Gun when i was 6. when i watched it again as 21 year old, i thought it was bollocks.

i prefer Iron Eagle. or Wings of the Apache (aka Firebirds)

 

[J.T.B.]

For the record, they were T-38s the F-5 variant. T-33 is (I think.) a variant of the F-80.

I'm going back 25 years but I'm pretty sure they were F-5s from the "Aggressor Forces" at the real Top Gun school, not T-38s.

And, I should add, the crown of best air-to-air cinematography still goes to Battle of Britain. Truly brilliant.

Yes! A wonderful movie.

--Justin

 

[CorporalClegg]

^
A few may have been. But I know I read somewhere that for most of the filming they used T-38s because they were easier/cheaper to get.

 

[Switch]

I'm American and it had F-14s and T-33s in Russian colors.


TOP. GUN.

lol

Chevaliers actually features some healthy French-American rivalry. The second act of the film concerns the two nations competing to supply either Mirage 2000-5s or F-16s to an unnamed African state. The US is said to have won the contract originally, but when it balked at supplying the latest radar for the aircraft the host nation reopened the competition ... now to be decided by a 4000km race through the airspace of several African states. I'm not sure that's quite how the tender process works IRL.

On a more personal note there's also an American pilot in the film who engages in a strip-tease for one of the French pilots.