Newsmax’s Hirsen Thinks New ‘Top Gun’ Film Saved Manhood

James Hirsen spent a good part of his May 31 Newsmax column gushing over Tom Cruise and recounting the long production process of his new film, “Top Gun: Maverick.” He then declared that the film has saved both America and manhood:

In part because the new movie is a sequel to a film released over three decades ago, it includes themes that a whole lot of people have been hungering for. It is unapologetically pro-America, pro-military and pro-manhood.

Social media posts tell the story of spontaneous hoots and hollers from gleeful movie attendees being emitted at cineplexes around the globe.

In Taiwan specifically, according to the Central News Agency of Taiwan, audiences who were present at the premiere of the film broke into applause and cheered at the sight of their national flag being displayed onscreen in the movie.

[…]

“Top Gun: Maverick” is one of the first slices of entertainment media in quite a while that is not just entertaining. It is a nod to visceral manhood, which over time has been relegated to the cutting room floor.

Hirsen didn’t explain what his definition of manhood is or how the film fulfills that particular vision. Apparently guys flying jets is what passes for manhood in Hirsen’s world. Hirsen went on to lament:

Once upon a time Americans had a common bond in the television that they watched and the movies that they viewed. Hasn’t been that way for a while now.

But there really are palpable things that serve to bind any society together as a culture. One of these things is having a common body of literature, or in modern-day terms, a common body of entertainment fare. Something that everyone is tuned into at a given time.

These media components have the capacity to serve as a kind of glue that secures people together in a life experience. It also can translate into a unifying cultural dynamic.

Hirsen didn’t mention that conservatives like him did a lot to destroy common culture because they deemed it too liberal. A couple months earlier, Hirsen smeared the Pixar film “Seeing Red” as “occult” because it showed the Chinese culture that millions of people live — he was apparently mad that they weren’t Christians — and attacked the film’s allegory of puberty as “debasing” even though it’s an experience a full one-half of the planet has.

It seems Hirsen will attack any “common culture” that doesn’t reflect his right-wing political sensibilities. If society won’t bind around his own personal interests, he would rather ensure it stays unbound.