Starring: |
Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer |
Directed by: |
Tony Scott |
Viewed by the Reagans: |
May 30, 1986 |
The Film That Became a Touchstone for the Reagan Years
As I left my office on the thirty-fourth floor of the Fox Plaza building in Los Angeles and rode the elevator down to the entrance to greet Ronald Reagan’s guest, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Since leaving the White House in January 1989, Reagan had returned to California and established his postpresidential office in Fox Plaza. This gleaming, barely two-year-old, thirty-five-story building in Century City had already earned its own place in movie history by this point; some might know it better as “Nakatomi Plaza,” the setting of the 1988 action thriller Die Hard. A big part of its appeal was its proximity to the Reagans’ Los Angeles residence, less than fifteen minutes away by car. The Reagans had come full circle, returning to live and work in this city that had been the scene of some of their earliest successes and most important events in their lives—not just their careers on the screen but also their meeting and falling in love with each other. The Reagans felt at home in Los Angeles and comfortable in the buzzing, celebrity-packed atmosphere.
I, on the other hand, a kid from Ohio, considered myself lucky to be there. It seemed like only yesterday that Ken Duberstein, then White House chief of staff, called me one day in the summer of 1988 and asked if I would be interested in going to Los Angeles as director of public affairs in Ronald Reagan’s office once he’d left Washington. I was both stunned and thrilled. Like everyone else on the White House staff, I had been polishing my resume as the end of the Reagan presidency loomed. I told Ken I would love to do that, but he made no promises. A couple of weeks later, one weekend at Camp David, as we were sitting in the conference room in Laurel Lodge for the president’s weekly radio address, Mrs. Reagan turned to me and said, “Ronnie and I are so happy that you will be coming with us to Los Angeles.” That was that. The job of public affairs director entailed being spokesman, speechwriter, media advisor, and personal aide. (I found out years later that the Reagans had asked Ken to approach me about the job, because they did not want any awkwardness if I turned out not to be interested.)
Unlike the Reagans, I was new to Los Angeles’s celebrity culture, but I was trying to learn fast. And this day was promising to be quite an education. The individual I was on my way to greet was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
Perhaps that’s why I was a bit surprised when an ordinary-looking SUV pulled up in front of the building, and Tom Cruise hopped out of the driver’s seat. He was recognizable, of course, with his hair parted and that famous smile. He had no chauffeur, no security, and no entourage, and was wearing a dark suit and tie to meet my boss.
I introduced myself, and he was as friendly as I had hoped. I told him my name as we shook hands, and he said, “And I’m Tom.” “Yes, I knew that,” I said. He chuckled. We walked to the elevator and rode it to the floor on which the former president’s office was.
The idea to get these two stars together was born from an ongoing conversation among former president Reagan’s staff, helped by Mrs. Reagan. Once we set up the LA office, she, the chief of staff Fred Ryan, and I tossed around ideas for interesting and fun things for the erstwhile chief executive to do, to liven up the staid duties that often typified the careers of past presidents.
One idea that appealed to all of us was that Reagan should get to know modern Hollywood. After all, he was an elder statesman not only of the United States but of Tinseltown. And we knew he would be interested in getting to know his successors as movie stars, as well as learn how the motion picture business had evolved. Cruise, one of the biggest stars of the 1980s, seemed an ideal person to approach. Reagan not only knew who he was, but also he had enjoyed watching Cruise’s 1986 blockbuster Top Gun at Camp David several years ago, despite some interruptions.
I was unable to make the trip to Camp David on the weekend in the spring of 1986 when Top Gun was shown. Denny Brisley, a colleague in the White House Press Office, took my place. Since graduating from Stanford University in 1982, she had worked at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the largest office within the president’s Executive Office, before joining the White House press staff in 1985. Denny had also recently joined the US Navy Reserve and was celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday the day she took off with the Reagans for Camp David on Friday, May 30—her first time filling in on this trip. It promised to be an eventful birthday weekend.
Also on board Marine One that day was Commander Vivien Crea of the US Coast Guard, the first woman to serve as a presidential military aide. As the chopper thundered over the National Mall, Commander Crea, the “football” case containing the nuclear launch codes held in her grasp, leaned over to the president and made a special request. She asked if Marine One could divert from the usual flight path to Camp David and fly over the Coast Guard headquarters at Buzzard Point on the Anacostia River in southwest Washington, DC.
Crea, who would go on to become vice commandant of the Coast Guard, explained that their headquarters was getting a special visit that day. The Coast Guard cutter Eagle, a nearly three-hundred-foot sailing vessel used as a training ship for cadets, was docked there on a visit from the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. The president liked the idea, and the pilots altered course for the southwest waterfront. When the brilliant white vessel with its three high masts and familiar Coast Guard emblem came into view, the helicopter began to circle as the president and Mrs. Reagan waved down at the cadets (who were no doubt surprised to be buzzed by Marine One). Rex, the Reagans’ yappy and annoying Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, barked at the window.
Although a committed navy woman herself, Denny Brisley was proud of the salute to her fellow seafaring service members. After that detour, it was on to Maryland.
As the presidential pilot lowered the helicopter to land at Camp David, Brisley watched from the window as the presidential flag was raised to welcome the president. It hit the top of the staff just as Marine One touched down. One of her fellow naval officers greeted the president with a salute as the party disembarked. As it turned out, there was still more to come to stir Ensign Brisley’s navy pride that weekend.
From the helicopter, the staff party transferred to the small motorcade of nondescript silver Chrysler sedans that would ferry them to their cabins. As everyone was getting in, President Reagan turned to Brisley and asked if she would care to join them for a movie later that evening. She had hoped this invitation was coming, but she knew the routine. You didn’t just “show up” for movie night in Aspen; the Reagans had to invite you.
“Thank you, Mr. President, I would be delighted,” she replied. “What are we going to watch?”
Brisley remembered that Reagan responded with a smile and a wink. “We are watching Top Gun,” he said. He was clearly excited, and so was the young press aide and naval officer who was set to join him.
Top Gun had been out for only about two weeks, and already it was proving wildly popular. On its opening weekend, it brought in more than $8 million and shot to number one at the box office. Critics praised the action scenes but scoffed at some of the dialogue and story lines. No matter, it would become the top movie of 1986.I
The film centers on fliers at the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, known informally as Top Gun, where the best aviators in the naval ranks receive advanced training. It opens with a tense aerial encounter in the skies above the Indian Ocean between F-14 Tomcat fighters from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and hostile jets from a never-identified country (but bearing a Communist red star). Lieutenant Pete Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise and known by his call sign “Maverick,” performs a daring maneuver, managing to invert his F-14 above the enemy aircraft and give its pilot a less-than-diplomatic middle finger. The incident ends without gunfire, but the top pilot in Maverick’s squadron cracks from the pressure of the encounter.
Maverick and his radio intercept officer, Lieutenant Junior Grade Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, played by Anthony Edwards, become the squadron’s top team, earning them a trip to Top Gun fighter pilot school, then located at Miramar Naval Air Station in California. They are sent off with a warning from their commander, who is well aware of the recklessness that earned Maverick his call sign. These include “a history of high-speed passes over five air control towers and one admiral’s daughter.”
At Top Gun, Maverick and Goose rival another hotshot team of fliers in their class, “Iceman” and “Slider,” played by Val Kilmer and Rick Rossovich. Their instructors, “Viper” and “Jester” (Tom Skerritt and Michael Ironside), recognize Maverick’s natural talent but try to tame his headstrong tendencies. After one training flight that didn’t end well, Jester remarks that Maverick displayed “some of the best flying I’ve seen to date—right up to the part where you got killed.” To further complicate things, Maverick falls for Charlotte Blackwood, a civilian air combat analyst attached to Top Gun (and bearing her own call sign, “Charlie”), played by Kelly McGillis.
Viper, the older instructor, holds a key to the secret that drives Maverick to fly the way he does: the unresolved disappearance of his father, also a naval aviator, during the Vietnam War. Maverick’s “need for speed” eventually takes its toll, leading to tragic consequences. He must face the question of whether he has what it takes to fly with the best at Top Gun. And in the film’s gripping final dogfight, when the black jets emblazoned with red stars are menacing a disabled American ship, he must rely on both his Top Gun training and his natural risk-taking instincts to survive.
Top Gun was made with the full cooperation of the US Navy, and real pilots performed the flying sequences. Dozens of naval aviators were thanked by name, including their call signs, in the credits for their help in making the film. The coordination wasn’t always easy. In one instance, when director Tony Scott was filming on an aircraft carrier, he realized the lighting would look better if the ship was traveling in a different direction. Informed that the effort to turn the massive vessel would cost $25,000, Scott cut a check then and there.II
The US Navy received a return for its efforts. Enlistment booths set up outside theaters showing the movie across the country led to a surge in recruitment, especially for the aviation program. One recruiting officer in Los Angeles told the Associated Press, “I’ve asked several of these individuals if they’ve seen the movie and if that’s why they came down to talk to us again, and they’ve said ‘yes.’ ” Another recruiter reported that her offices had received more than twice their usual number of phone calls in the weeks since Top Gun came out. When they interviewed applicants, “about ninety percent said they had seen the movie.”III
Denny Brisley had already joined the navy, but that didn’t lessen her enjoyment of the film when she watched it in Aspen with the Reagans. The president and Mrs. Reagan were settled on the couch together as usual, with their feet up on the ottoman and Rex nestled in between them. Brisley remembered the awkwardness during the “hot and heavy” love scenes between Cruise and McGillis that “seemed to go on forever”—the Reagans were well known to disapprove of too much adult content in movies. Incidentally, “Take My Breath Away,” the song used in their famous blue-tinted love scene, won the movie’s only Oscar, for best original song.
President Reagan was enthralled by the dogfighting scenes, which even the movie’s critics had to praise. Roger Ebert called them “brilliant.”IV The president’s dog apparently enjoyed them as well. During one intense aerial combat sequence, right as the movie’s pumping eighties power-rock soundtrack reached its crescendo, Rex jumped up on the ottoman and started barking at the screen. The excitement must have gotten to him, too. The president, however, was less than amused to have his concentration on the action broken. Brisley remembered laughing to herself, amused at the spectacle of the most powerful man in the world struggling to quiet his barking dog.
The president enjoyed Top Gun, perhaps not least because it was one of the biggest Hollywood movies in a long time that was unabashedly pro-military. Since the end of the Vietnam War, Hollywood had taken a disillusioned attitude toward the military, focusing on the bitterness and brutality of war and portraying American fighting men in a morally ambiguous light. Movies such as 1979’s Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter reflected this generally antiwar viewpoint. Movies about violent Vietnam veterans, like Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle (which reportedly inspired Reagan’s would-be assassin, John Hinckley Jr.)V and Sylvester Stallone’s character John Rambo, from First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II), were in vogue as well.
But Top Gun, released more than a decade after the end of the Vietnam War, was not afraid to portray the American military unequivocally as the “good guys,” and that was certainly more in line with Reagan’s own thinking. He respected all men and women in the service, and the year before, during a Veterans Day service at Arlington National Cemetery, observed that “there is a special sadness that accompanies the death of a serviceman, for we’re never quite good enough to them—not really; we can’t be, because what they gave us is beyond our powers to repay.”VI
One aspect of Camp David that delighted the president was that it was a military facility, known officially as Naval Support Facility (NSF) Thurmont. He loved the troops and returned every salute directed at him. It was the president’s idea to “drop in” at their mess hall and have lunch every so often. He would take a plastic tray and choose food from the cafeteria line like everyone else. A spot had been saved for him at a table with men and women of all ranks. He would ask them where they were from and was eager to learn about their families. After lunch, President Reagan would go over to an area where everyone could see him, usually in front of the milk machine, and give a few remarks about how grateful he and Mrs. Reagan were, how much they appreciated everything the troops did to make them so comfortable at Camp David, and so on, and then open it up for questions. The troops were silent at first, but after some coaxing, they would ask questions ranging from national security, war, and peace issues, to what it was like in Hollywood in his day, to what his favorite sports team was. He would have stayed in the mess hall the whole day if the staff had let him.
Around the holidays, at Mrs. Reagan’s suggestion, every man and woman serving at Camp David was invited to meet the Reagans and have a picture taken, usually in front of the large fireplace in Laurel. The troops did not say much during their moments in front of the camera, but the Reagans enjoyed meeting and thanking them all.
The Reagans were similarly courteous to the military personnel with them at their ranch near Santa Barbara. There the on-duty military aide was assigned to a temporary housing trailer near the horse barn. The president would make the person feel welcome by walking over and offering a bottle of red wine on his or her first day of duty.
The members of the military who served at Camp David were complete professionals, who certainly did not display the flagrant (if endearing) disregard for higher authority shown by Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun. Nonetheless, Maverick was a hero who, despite some flaws, wants to do his nation proud. He tells his commander, “[I] just want to serve my country, be the best pilot in the navy, sir.” The line is delivered somewhat tongue in cheek as Maverick gets a dressing-down, but it’s not all irony. Maverick may have been a hotshot and a reckless flier, but his intentions were good.
Top Gun did not single-handedly end the trend of antiwar movies in Hollywood. Director-writer Oliver Stone’s Platoon, released the same year, depicted US soldiers engaging in war crimes in Vietnam. Three years later, Tom Cruise took on a different role as an antiwar Vietnam vet in Born on the Fourth of July. But in 1986 Top Gun’s tremendous success showed that America was beginning to come out from under the shadow of Vietnam. In their own ways, both Ronald Reagan and “Maverick” helped us get there.
Soon after Ronald Reagan left the White House those two would get a chance to meet face-to-face.
As the elevator door opened on the thirty-fourth floor of Fox Plaza, and I led Tom Cruise into our office, the rest of the staff was shocked. Only a handful of us knew that Cruise was coming in to meet with the boss—on the daily calendar, the time frame had been marked only as “Hold—Private Appointment.” I considered getting a movie poster for him to sign but decided that would be rude.
Cruise could not have been more gracious as I escorted him around and introduced him to the people in the office. Paula Wagner, the actor’s talent agent, joined us. Wagner had been instrumental in arranging this meeting. We approached her with the idea first, and she recognized its appeal. She promised to raise it with Cruise and got back to us within days to say that her client was in. Wagner would go on to become an acclaimed movie producer in her own right, sometimes partnering with Cruise.
After taking Cruise around to meet my colleagues, I took him in to see President Reagan, accompanied by Wagner and Fred Ryan. Reagan’s personal office was modest by CEO standards, furnished with a desk, couch, armchairs, and coffee table. The walls were taken up by paintings and shelves. Amid the books were framed photographs of the Reagan family, world leaders, and sculptures, most with a Western theme. The office’s best feature, by far, was the spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean. President Reagan never tired of taking visitors to the window to show them.
Reagan greeted his guests and offered them a seat on the couch. They were served water and jelly beans from a crystal jar bearing the presidential seal. Reagan and Cruise quickly engaged in an animated discussion about moviemaking and politics. Their conversation also touched on issues such as the environment and taxes. Reagan told Cruise that back in his day, his earnings had been taxed at a rate of ninety cents on the dollar. This astounded Cruise.
Comparing their own experiences in Hollywood seemed to be of the greatest interest to them. Reagan asked Cruise what it was like to be a star in the 1980s. For his part, the younger actor listened intently to Reagan’s stories from the earlier days and how his acting experience had compared with serving as president. Reagan talked, longingly, to my ear, about the old studio system that used to run Hollywood, comparing working for a studio to being part of a big family.
The studios, Reagan explained, were run “like a Greek candy store, where they made it in the back and sold it in the front.” They made the movies on their own lots and released them in their own theaters. Cruise was quite intrigued by that. Interestingly, just four years later, in 1993, he and Wagner would launch their own independent production company, something that would have been difficult, if not impossible, under the studio system of Reagan’s time.
Wagner remembered Reagan as a “lovely, kind man.” Despite her and Cruise traveling in the highest Hollywood circles, she told me later that they were amazed to be in a room with a man who had been president of the United States.VII
When it came time for the nearly hour-long visit to end, Cruise and Wagner thanked Reagan for taking the time to see them. “No, thank you for coming by,” he replied. He meant it. He appreciated and enjoyed their visit.
As they got up to leave, I could not help but think how interesting it was that two of the most talented, best-known men to make it as movie stars got along so well. They were both consummate professionals who enjoyed unmatched success. Even though Reagan was now a private citizen, he had left office earlier that year with the highest approval rating of any president up to that point in history. Cruise had costarred in Rain Man, the previous year’s Oscar winner for best picture, and was about to secure his first Oscar nomination in his own right for Born on the Fourth of July. I had just witnessed a meeting between two of the most popular individuals in America.
Working in the White House was an experience like no other, but I will always have fond memories of those years in Reagan’s Los Angeles office. He remained a great boss right up until the end. A few weeks before I was to leave Reagan’s employ for good, he came into my office and said, “Well, Mark, is there anything you want?”
I had no idea what he meant, and said, “Sir, I must confess I do not know what you’re asking me.”
He chuckled. “Oh, well, I mean with regard to a position in Washington. I know when people left the White House, they sometimes arranged to be appointed to a position of some kind, and I’d be pleased to help with that, if you’d like.”
I thanked him and said I would think about it and let him know. It had never occurred to me to seek an appointment to anything after I left the Reagans, but I was intrigued by the idea. So I did some research into presidential boards and commissions. Maybe it was paranoia on my part, but I suspected that people in the George H. W. Bush White House might resist a presidential appointment of a longtime Reagan aide. So I had to come up with something to which they could not say no for any reason. Specifically, that meant a position that did not require Senate confirmation, was uncompensated, and was on a board or commission with no limit on its membership. Those were few and far between. But one that checked all the boxes and genuinely interested me was the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, which interviews and recommends to the president candidates for appointments as White House fellows. Begun in 1964, the White House Fellows program identified high-achieving and high-potential young professionals, and invited them to come to Washington to work in close proximity to top executive branch officials. Elaine Chao and Colin Powell are among those who served as White House Fellows earlier in their careers.
Once I identified the position, I went in to see President Reagan and told him I had found something I thought would work. He said, “Great, just give me the information, and I’ll call George.” As in Bush. As in President George H. W. Bush. Alrighty, then.
So I went back to my office, wrote the usual “Recommended Telephone Call” sheet, printed it out, and took it in to President Reagan. He looked at it, winked, and asked his secretary to get President Bush on the line. A few minutes later, she came in and said, “He’s on,” and President Reagan picked up the phone.
“Hi, George. How are you?” After an exchange of pleasantries, President Reagan said, “Say, George, I’m calling because I wanted to ask that Mark Weinberg, who has been with us for a number of years now and is coming back to Washington soon, be appointed to the Commission on White House Fellows. I think he’d do a great job there.” At that point, President Reagan stopped talking and listened to whatever his successor was saying. A few moments later, he said, “Thanks, George, I appreciate that. Nancy sends her love to Barbara. All right. Good-bye.” With that, he hung up the phone, looked at me, and said, “I think they’ll be in touch soon.” I thanked him and returned to my office, still a bit stunned by what I had witnessed.
I can only imagine what it was like on the other end of that call. George H. W. Bush is sitting in the Oval Office, and his secretary comes in to tell him Ronald Reagan is on the line. Since they did not talk by phone often, the new chief executive had to be curious about the subject of the call. So he picks it up only to find that his predecessor is calling about . . . me. I hope he was not disappointed.
An hour or so after President Reagan spoke to President Bush, I received a call from the White House, telling me that my appointment was in the works.
I. “Top Gun,” Box Office Mojo, accessed September 19, 2017, www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=topgun.htm.
II. Todd Leopold, “Director Tony Scott: An Appreciation,” CNN online, last modified August 21, 2012, www.cnn.com/2012/08/21/showbiz/movies/tony-scott-appreciation.
III. Mark Evje, Associated Press, “ ‘Top Gun’ Boosting Service Sign-Ups,” Los Angeles Times online, July 5, 1986, http://articles.latimes.com/1986-07-05/entertainment/ca-20403_1_top-gun.
IV. Roger Ebert, review of Top Gun, RogerEbert.com, May 16, 1986, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/top-gun-1986.
V. Laura A. Kiernan, “Hinckley, Jury Watch ‘Taxi Driver’ Film,” Washington Post online, May 29, 1982, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/05/29/hinckley-jury-watch-taxi-driver-film/783cde2f-1eea-4ec5-a36f-5ccf5d2a290f/?utm_term=.7e3aa890f502.
VI. “Remarks by President Reagan, Veterans Day National Ceremony, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, November 11, 1985,” US Department of Veterans Affairs online, last modified November 10, 2009, www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/speakers/1985remarks.asp.
VII. Author conversation with Paula Wagner via phone, August 9, 2016.