Woke MSNBC’s Zeeshan Aleem Bemoans Oscar Nominations for Top Gun: Maverick Because it Shows US Military as “Beacon of Virtue”

Woke MSNBC’s Zeeshan Aleem is not happy with the six Oscar nominations Top Gun: Maverick received. In fact, he hopes it “tanks at the Oscars.”

In a column for MSNBC, Aleem calls the movie “insidious” because of the depiction of the military as a “beacon of virtue.”

He writes:

But “Top Gun” is as insidious as it is entertaining. It does not merely revive a forgotten human-centered spectacle; it also beckons for a return to accepting the American war machine as a beacon of virtue and excitement. It’s a poisonous kind of nostalgia, one that smuggles love of endless war into a celebration of live action.

“Top Gun” is literal propaganda: In exchange for access to military aircraft, the producers of the movie agreed to allow the Defense Department to include its own “key talking points” in the script. Perhaps equally important, the script had to be written in a manner that flatters the military in order to secure the buy-in of the Pentagon. (Even then, defense officials requested “revisions” to the characters and their actions.) This collaboration in jingoism is evident throughout the script. The minor rebellions of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, played by Cruise, against his higher-ups in the military are minor diversions from his obedience to the logic of empire. It should be no surprise that just like with the first “Top Gun” movie, released in 1986, the military viewed the sequel as a promising recruitment tool, and ran U.S. Air Force ads before showings of the movie with imperialistic lines like “the entire sky belongs to us.” While the first movie helped rehab the military’s poor reputation in the wake of the Vietnam War, this one diverts from the failed war on terror, and comes as defense officials eye the rise of China.

I don’t object to anyone’s enjoyment of the film, but I hope it tanks at the Oscars. It’s possible to make thrilling action without so brazenly priming the public for warfare.

Aleem couldn’t take the blowback he received for his woke, whiny column. He used the left’s favorite smear when they are called out on their disgusting behavior. Those who disagree with him are Nazis.


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