'Top Gun: Maverick' Gets Shafted At The Oscars
"Top Gun: Maverick" didn't take home much hardware Sunday night at the Oscars.
The incredibly military film with Tom Cruise, once again, playing Maverick might have single-handedly saved Hollywood and the box office this past summer. Theaters were on a heavy decline for years, and it looked like COVID would be the final nail in the coffin.
However, "Top Gun: Maverick" captivated the country, gave fans an all-time great experience and earned nearly $1.5 billion at the box office. The film also scored six Oscars nominations, including Best Picture.
"Top Gun: Maverick" wins one Oscar. The Tom Cruise film won for Best Sound. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
"Top Gun: Maverick" winning Best Picture would signal Hollywood actually understands what people want. Viewers want a great time and not some woke lecture from millionaire elitists.
Yet, that's not what happened at the Oscars. The highly-anticipated "Top Gun" sequel won just one award - Best Sound - and Best Picture went to "Everything Everywhere All at Once."
"Top Gun: Maverick" should have won more.
While I'm sure "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is a solid film, "Top Gun: Maverick" should have won Best Picture for one simple reason.
It was the first movie in a very long time that seemed to bring everyone together. Nobody was talking about politics in the theater.
Fans, myself included, were just locked in and pumped to see Tom Cruise smoking bad guys. It was an unapologetically pro-America film. That might be a problem for some people, but it's not a problem for the majority of the country.
"Top Gun: Maverick" wins just one Academy Award. (Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
Not only did "Top Gun: Maverick" not win best picture, but it only went one for six. As a movie fan, that's super disappointing.
There was no other movie that had even close to the same impact as "Maverick." That has to mean something. Otherwise, what is even the point?
If movies the unwashed masses - that's a compliment - enjoy don't win, then there's truly no point. People wonder why award shows are dead, and this is why. "Top Gun: Maverick" represented everything the average person loves about cinema. Then, when it came to hand out awards, it got shafted.
Hollywood might eventually figure it out, but not Sunday night at the Oscars. It's truly a shame. "Top Gun: Maverick" deserved way more recognition than it got. It's that simple. Instead of recognizing a film that represents something with mass appeal and patriotism, the Academy chose to mostly ignore it. New year, same Hollywood.