THE MAKING OF AN ICONIC MOVIE
Fans will appreciate the complete Top Gun backstory, filled with anecdotes by people who were there and supported by studio and other historic documents.
Movie buffs will love the detail Top Gun Memos contains, from the famous bomber jacket to the Ninja-riding stuntman racing the F-14.
Navy personnel will revel in the accounts of pilots who were there, and the sheer importance of the role it played in making the movie.
Historians will appreciate the information captured on production practices and references to other movies that help explain why Top Gun?
Top Gun Memos
Praise for the book
Top Gun's journey from a magazine article to a film is epic. This is the story behind the story. Stars, F-14s, soundtrack and "need for speed" movie lines made Top Gun a box-office blockbuster, but the art and dazzling moviemaking behind it all is also a powerful tour-de-force for storytelling. Tom Cruise suffers a near-fatal accident. A pilot dies during filming. Principal photography wraps and post-production goes into overdrive to make it work. Flashing through the story at mock speed is journalist Meredith Jordan's prose, revealing how filmmakers overcame almost daily challenges to create one of the longest-lasting hit films in Hollywood history.
— Michael Sean Comerford, author of American OZ: An Astonishing Year Inside Traveling Carnivals at State Fairs & Festivals.
Meredith Jordan has worked a writing miracle … she has somehow made a detailed story of how a movie was made into a tale as captivating as the movie itself. In this case, 1986's Top Gun, the action drama that received mixed critical reviews but which the public loved and turned into a blockbuster (while also giving its23-year-old star, Tom Cruise, a huge career boost). Top Gun Memos is an addictive read that includes lots of famous names for movie lovers.
— David Wallace, author of the national bestseller Lost Hollywood and five other books about the film industry's golden years, and a memoir, I Called Him Uncle Harry, about growing up near then Sen. Harry S Truman, and his family.
Fans of Top Gun will be in heaven learning all about it with this book. Meredith Jordan offers a complete walk-through of the making of a film which became an instant classic, upon its release. Her writing provides detail of every day’s work, explaining all facets of filmmaking craft, written in a way that provides an education to the layperson, without ever talking down to the reader – nor to the professional who wants to study what it took to bring this film to the screen. A fascinating read.
— Matt Hurwitz, Entertainment Journalist.
Top Gun Memos does more than tell the story of the popular Top Gun movie, it explains why we’re still talking about it today. It also breaks news, which is unusual for a thirty-five year old movie, but not surprising given Jordan’s background as an investigative journalist. Written in an engaging style, it is filled with fresh stories and insights into filmmaking behind the scenes.
— Carolyn Johnston, professor of History and American Studies at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Fla., and the author of five books, most recently Voices of Cherokee Women.
Inside
TOP GUN MEMOS
Artistry and Danger: An Investigative Journalist Digs in
90 Interviews
1,250+ pages of studio andproduction documents
All fact-checked.
Plus, never before seen photos!
TOP GUN MEMOS includes a thorough look at each of the movie’s famous scenes, from the romantic dinner at Charlie’s house to the death of Goose, from the hangar-turned-classroom to the shirtless volleyball game featuring some of the Hollywood’s hottest male actors of the day. Tony Scott knew he wanted handsome guys. Years later, Quentin Tarantino noted the movie’s homoerotic appeal in a scene in Sleep With Me (1984).
TOP GUN MEMOS is filled with anecdotes and fun times without shirking the responsibly of telling the full story, with production plights, off-screen danger, and challenges overcome by filmmakers. Included throughout are the Navy aviators that assisted the productions, whose stories are everybit as amazing.
Top Gun Fans
Why has Top Gun outlasted so many other movies in the public psyche? The fans. They continue to visit locations associated with the movie, year after year, like Kansas City Barbecue in San Diego. An Oceanside real estate developer literally relocated a house that was a key location down the street to center its massive oceanfront development. Fans of the movie appreciate places like the popular USS Lexington Museum in Corpus Christi, which features this F-14, which was seen in the movie, among its exhibits.
DETAILS
Fun stories that take us to a different time in filmmaking ...
-- The Ninja-driving stuntman who raced the F-14 on the tarmac.
-- The location manager who lands the now famous Kansas City Barbeque restaurant for the dive bar scenes.
-- The costume designer who drove with Tom Cruise to Paramount for the final review of costumes but wouldn’t admit to the Paramount guard it was, in fact, Tom Cruise.
And a deeper look at three close calls during production …
-- The death of famed stunt pilot Art Scholl while shooting footage.
-- An incident offshore while filming the rescue scenes that nearly killed Tom Cruise.
-- A near miss with an F-14 while shooting the aerial flying scenes.
Based on interviews with key players:
Donna Scott, wife of Director Tony Scott
Filmmakers
Executive Producer Bill Badalato
Cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball
First Assistant Director Dan Kolsrud
Second Assistant Director Sharon Mann
Production Designer John DeCuir Jr.
Casting Director Margery Simkin
Costume Designer Jimmy Tyson
Prop Master Mark Wade
Locations Manager Fred Baron
Transportation Coordinator Randy Peters
Harold Faltermeyer, musician and composer,
Supervising Sound Editor Cecilia Hall,
Editors Billy Weber and Chris Lebenzon
Gary Gutierrez, special photographic effects
Navy
Admiral USNR (Ret.) Pete Pettigrew
Admiral USN (Ret) Robert F. Willard,
and former Navy aviators
Lloyd 'Bozo' Abel, Dave 'Bio' Baranek,
and John Semcken.
And many others...