Propaganda Film Review

One film that comes to mind was Top Gun.  Has anyone not seen that movie?  It came out in 1986 and features Tom Cruise as a cocky fighter pilot at Miramar.  The F-14 fighter jet scenes were pretty cool to watch and many in their teens or twenties were probably swayed by the culture shown in the movie.  Sure did look like a lot of fun.  And the music by Kenny Loggins was incredible; even now, I still can’t get those tunes out of my mind.

Was it effective as propaganda?  That would be a resounding yes.  I was in the Air Force Reserve at the time and that movie was playing somewhere on base almost all the time.  I even remember coming home from a TDY exercise overseas and Top Gun was playing on a large screen in the hangar where we were processing back in.  The music was blaring and everyone was so excited.  I was so proud to be part of the military and it was about a different service than what I was in.  Didn’t matter though – it showcased the military in such a good light.  For my military unit, it was the go-to movie anytime you wanted to boost morale and it worked every single time.

Additionally, I read that enlistments increased by 20,000 over the previous year as a direct result of the film, even though the Navy never used it as an advertisement – in an official capacity, anyway.  I would call that very effective, wouldn’t you?