Blogocentric Formulations

I feel the need... the need for speed!

"Blog Harbor"  PROMPT (DAY 16): Soundtrack songs. Which song from a movie/TV/game/etc. soundtrack has the most emotional impact on you? What song, when you hear it, brings you right back to the scene in question and gets you teary-eyed, overjoyed, amped up, etc. all over again?

It's pretty hard to top the iconic Kenny Loggins song "Danger Zone" from the action blockbuster and allegedly homoerotic fantasy film Top Gun. From the opening montage (which is actually the "Top Gun Anthem" and another iconic song), you're immediately thrown into the world of fighter pilots. Later on, when "Danger Zone" kicks in while jet engines ignite and fighters taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier, you can almost feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins.

I always forget how much fun it is to watch this film until I catch a glimpse of it on TV or catch some clips on YouTube. It's delightfully over the top in the way that only an 80s action movie can be, and so most of the iconic moments only get cheesier and cheesier with time. I was a little too young to catch this on the first run in theaters, but I remember watching it on home video years later and being amazed at how they shot all of the plane stuff. It's kind of a cliche these days that a movie should show you a world you never knew existed, but it's a cliche precisely because of movies like these where audiences were awestruck at the idea of actually getting a sense of what it's like to be a fighter pilot. Or, in the case of Backdraft, a firefighter. Or, in the case of Lethal Weapon, a renegade loose cannon of a cop who plays by his own rules.

Enjoy the video for this song too; it's 80s Kenny Loggins at his best, back when music videos for movie soundtracks were basically clips from the film intercut with the artist singing in one of the film's cheapest-to-recreate scenes. I mean, seriously, is the idea here that Kenny Loggins is singing from the same bed that Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis boned in? I guess so!