One of the extra benefits of the critical and cultural phenom that is Top Gun: Maverik is all the film recommendations that seem to populate everyone's reviews of it. I was glad to have Kosinski's prior testosterone-fueled-weepy pointed out to me, as I hadn't heard of it before. It's good but doesn't fully live up to the hype.
The true story of an elite crew of Arizona firefighters, the Granite Mountain Hotshots, gets boiled down to a surprisingly thin—even hokey at times—masculine melodrama that avoids some of the more compelling personal and political aspects of the story. The fire scenes are impressive, but an exploration of the job's specifics and the individual personalities of the majority of characters are curiously absent.
In the spirit of pointing to other films in the body of reviewing a film, I encourage folks to seek out the documentary Young Men and Fire (released the following year, 2008) for a less Hollywoodized exploration of similar material.
Twitter Capsule:
True story of an elite crew of Arizona firefighters, the Granite Mountain Hotshots, gets boiled down to a surprisingly thin—even hokey at times—masculine melodrama that avoids some of the more compelling personal and political aspects of the story. Fire scenes are impressive, but an exploration of the job's specifics and the individual personalities of the majority of characters are curiously absent. Check out the documentary Young Men and Fire (released the following year, 2008) for a less Hollywoodized exploration of similar material.

