HOT SHOTS
US, 1991, 85 minutes, Colour.
Charlie Sheen, Valeria Golina, Cary Elwes, Lloyd Bridges, Jon Cryer, Kristy Swanson, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Directed by Jim Abrahams.
Hot Shots is an entertaining spoof of the Top Gun films and the militaristic vision of Hollywood in the '80s. It was co-written and directed by Jim Abrahams (with the Zucker brothers), one of the team who made the Flying High comedy, Top Secret, and who went off to make such films as Ruthless People, Big Business and Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael on his own. The film was co-written by Pat Croft, writer of Police Academy. There are lots of in jokes with movies referred to, ranging from Dances With Wolves to Gone With the Wind.
Lloyd Bridges is Admiral Benson who eventually becomes President Benson, parodying George Bush, in the sequel. The film looks at the armed services and parodies training (Officer and a Gentleman), mad admirals (Lloyd Bridges at his most eccentric) and warfare. There are all kinds of verbal jokes - deadpan humour, visual gags and a great deal of literal slapstick and pratfalls. This enables the audience to keep chuckling, even when the material is not particularly strong.
Charlie Sheen seems an unlikely star of parody. However, he manages with his serious style to create a deadpan image as well as an accident-prone variation on Tom Cruise. (He was later to parody Rambo as accident-prone in Hot Shots, Part
Deux). Cary Elwes (Princess Bride, Days of Thunder, The Crush) is the arrogant rival, Valeria Golina in the Kelly McGillis? role as Ramada, the romantic heroine (also in the sequel). The supporting cast includes John Cryer in an amusing turn as Washout, a pilot with double vision. Efrem Zimbalist Jnr as Wilson, a villain, mime Bill Irwin as Buzz Harley. Battle sequences are taken from John Milius's The Flight of the Intruder.
The film also parodies a number of films - giving Harley and Ramada the opportunity to be Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara as well as Superman and Lois Lane.
The film takes its cue from the credits in parodying Top Gun and continues this throughout the film. (Charlie Sheen appeared in the late '80s in Navy Seals - a serious variation on the theme of this film).
1.Entertaining comedy and parody? An entertaining spoof?
2.The appeal of the parallels with serious movies, the parallels with Top Gun? References to movies like Dances With Wolves? Visual humour, verbal humour, deadpan and misunderstandings? Pratfalls and literal knockabout comedy? The musical score - and the insertion of `Only You'? Of `The Man I Love' (sending up Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys)?
3.The title, the spoof of Top Gun?
4.The focus on Topper, the prelude with the death of his father and the humour and seriousness of the flight and crash? His retiring to the Indian village as in Dances With Wolves? Relationship with the chief, talking Indian dialects - with a touch of humour? His being called up again? The return, finding everybody related or connected with his father's death? The training, the rivalry with Kent Gregory? Friendship with Dead Meat? And with the pilot with bad vision? The training, the encounter with the psychologist - and her performance on the horse, later her performance singing and his playing the piano? The rivalry with Gregory? Training, his being late for training and Dead Meat's death? The build-up to action - and the parody with the Gulf War and Saddam Hussein. His hearing the truth, his coming in as a hero? Disappointment with Ramada? The happy ending?
5.Ramada, the psychologist, performance on the horse, relationship with Gregory? The interviews with Topper, the cabaret performance? Falling in love - and the final reconciliation?
6.The admiral, all the repairs and his injuries in World War Two and Korea? The spoof of the doddering admiral? His mishearing and misunderstanding things? Being continually knocked about?
7.Gregory, the suave cad, relationship with Ramada, rivalry with Topper? The fight? His relenting and acclaiming Topper as hero? The man with the double vision, the accidents, his glasses and his doing the surveillance and radar work? Dead Meat, his relationship with his wife - all his secrets and insurance, his death?
8.Block, the serious side of the movie, the plot to sabotage the military equipment and the planes? Efrem Zimbalist Jnr as the villain, his sinister presence, the limousines, his assistant? His final comeuppance?
9.The style of the film with its moving from one joke to the other, the parodies of the movies, the knockabout humour - and Hollywood taking on itself in spoof?
