The irony of the 80's in 3D viewing

Last night was awesome. 

Why? I’m so glad you asked. 

My husband and I went to see “Top Gun” in 3D. It’s showing for one week in our area and when I heard about it, I actually giggled out loud. We ordered our tickets online, just in case they sold out. Yeah, it’s fair to say that I was pretty darn excited. 

I adore the movie “Top Gun”. It’s a classic, in the 80’s sense of the word. It has big hair, funny fitting clothing and an admirable dose of cheesy. Great music and way too much blue eye shadow. Oh, and Tom Cruise before he was too insane, or at least not famous enough to let anyone see it.  

I didn’t mind the beach volleyball scene one bit either. I love a man with a six pack. 

Can you beat it? Memory lane…

My first observation, upon entering the movie theatre, was the age of the movie viewers already seated. Yup… all old like us. No kids. No teens. Just a group of (almost) middle aged folk out for the evening, looking to relive their youth. I should have been surprised, I suppose, but it still cracked me up. 

When the movie started, and the music began, a chitter went through the audience. A small, simultaneous chuckle. I’m sure I contributed, but not consciously. When the faster music started, heads in front of me started bobbing moments before the fast beat took off. Yup, we all knew it was coming. We had heard it a million times before. It was ingrained in our memories. 

The true irony of seeing an “oldie” in 3D didn’t entirely hit, however, until the first scene that included computers. Small screens, mostly black, with green, shapeless images. There’s one scene, a classroom scene, where they are discussing fight tactics and I was taken back in time by the little green airplanes meant to simulate the air fight. Did we ever really think that was impressive? Sitting in a stadium seating theatre, wearing 3D glasses, looking at old school computers. Hmmm… bizarre. 

The air fights scenes were cool, though. I don’t know if they touched them up or not, but they didn’t make any drastic changes. The “oldie but goodie” factor was ever present, and I was grateful for that. It would have taken something away from the experience if they had performed too many alterations. Sort of like the sound of the scratches in the music from the 50’s and 60’s. Not that the newer and cleaner sound on CD isn’t nice, but it’s just not quite the same without its authentic sound. 

Now I have to dig up my CD of the soundtrack. I’m sure I have it somewhere and I have been singing the “Top Gun” music in my head all day. 

Maybe I’ll even dance around a little bit while I’m at it.