Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Being away to a place with no internet for the last couple of days, I only found out yesterday about the death of Tony Scott - director of Top Gun (and a bunch of other films).
There's really nothing worse than suicide. No other death is as horrible and painful for both the deceased and his family - not in the least because it's just difficult for them to deal with. The family is constantly going to be wondering what they had done to cause this. And at the back of anyone's head, there's gonna be the thought (or at least, an unconscious feeling) that this should not have happened and that the person who killed hmself had willingly inflicted all this suffering on those who were dearest to him.
So, it's not, so to speak, a good death. But the fact remains - someone who has influenced our lives hugely is dead. I don't know about everyone else here, but as far as I'm concerned, I can put it this way: a lot of people, playing Wing Commander, had this feeling that they were taking part in Star Wars. Others said it was World War II in space. Both are right, of course, but for me - above all, Wing Commander is Top Gun.
Top Gun made me fall in love not with aviation as such, but with military aviation. Obviously, I never became a fighter pilot (and in truth, I only very briefly wanted to - that phase passed quickly enough ), but to this day I remain fascinated by air combat, above all because of the vision presented by Top Gun: you and your wingman fighting together in a chivalrous battle where one man makes a difference, but only a team can win. The influence of this vision is so obvious in Wing Commander, it hardly needs to be pointed out. Without Top Gun, maybe I wouldn't have loved Wing Commander quite as much - but more importantly, without Top Gun's influence, Wing Commander probably would be a much different, inferior game.
I remember very little of Tony Scott's other films. I saw Crimson Tide, and Deja Vu. Both were ok films, nothing special, and I've never chosen to buy or watch a film based on the fact that he had been the director. But it wouldn't have mattered if he had done nothing at all after Top Gun - that one film is more than enough for us Wing Commander fans to remember him by.
So long, Tony Scott. I'm very sorry to see you go this way... but thanks for Top Gun!
There's really nothing worse than suicide. No other death is as horrible and painful for both the deceased and his family - not in the least because it's just difficult for them to deal with. The family is constantly going to be wondering what they had done to cause this. And at the back of anyone's head, there's gonna be the thought (or at least, an unconscious feeling) that this should not have happened and that the person who killed hmself had willingly inflicted all this suffering on those who were dearest to him.
So, it's not, so to speak, a good death. But the fact remains - someone who has influenced our lives hugely is dead. I don't know about everyone else here, but as far as I'm concerned, I can put it this way: a lot of people, playing Wing Commander, had this feeling that they were taking part in Star Wars. Others said it was World War II in space. Both are right, of course, but for me - above all, Wing Commander is Top Gun.
Top Gun made me fall in love not with aviation as such, but with military aviation. Obviously, I never became a fighter pilot (and in truth, I only very briefly wanted to - that phase passed quickly enough ), but to this day I remain fascinated by air combat, above all because of the vision presented by Top Gun: you and your wingman fighting together in a chivalrous battle where one man makes a difference, but only a team can win. The influence of this vision is so obvious in Wing Commander, it hardly needs to be pointed out. Without Top Gun, maybe I wouldn't have loved Wing Commander quite as much - but more importantly, without Top Gun's influence, Wing Commander probably would be a much different, inferior game.
I remember very little of Tony Scott's other films. I saw Crimson Tide, and Deja Vu. Both were ok films, nothing special, and I've never chosen to buy or watch a film based on the fact that he had been the director. But it wouldn't have mattered if he had done nothing at all after Top Gun - that one film is more than enough for us Wing Commander fans to remember him by.
So long, Tony Scott. I'm very sorry to see you go this way... but thanks for Top Gun!