80s Movies That Made Me Love (And Want To Visit) America

6. Iron Eagle

I can't stress enough how much this film had an impact on my love for all things American when I was a child. As I have already mentioned in a previous article, I can't understand how Tom Cruise and Tony Scott (R.I.P.) get so much credit for the true abomination of a film that is Top Gun. Even as a child I understood that this was a bad movie and was quite perplexed at how the masses took to it in such a dramatic fashion. But again, it was the '80s and if the Yanks were taking on the "Russkies" that was enough to get critical acclaim. I get it. But the "propaganda" movie that did it for me? Iron Eagle.

I don't think I can overstate the love for America I felt after my 25th or so viewing of this '80s classic and its ability to overstimulated my patriotic side to the extreme. Although my favorite cartoon was the Transformers and I had several Decepticon Fighter Jets at my disposal, I was never using them for their intended purposes. Rather, I re-enacted the scenes from Iron Eagle in full. And not only that but I was fortunate enough to have the pubs jukebox with the actual soundtrack to the film stored within its confines also at my disposal. With the added bonus of matchbox cars and toy soldiers my expectations for realism were second to none.

And then Iron Eagle 2 came out and made everything worse.....

My first ever childhood dream to my recollection was to be a fighter pilot for the United States Air Force. Now you can't get much more love for a nation than to serve its military when you are not even a citizen. And it wasn't Tom Cruise and what was quite possibly his worse performance in history convincing me that to sign up was the way to go. If anything that volleyball scene made me consider a desk job instead.

Unfortunately I was told due to my size that the dream of fighter pilot was out of my reach. Now people have turned to me and said, "why not a commercial airline pilot?" Nope, not for me. I wanted to be in where the action was, not being a chauffeur to a bunch of ungrateful people who don't seem to recall the time when this was a luxury that only the rich could afford.