In late August, I’ll just be sitting at my desk, doing my normal Thursday activities for work. And all of a sudden, I’ll hear the roar. The roar I’ve heard many times but am still delightfully surprised by everytime I hear it. I’ll “take a 10 minute break” and head upstairs to the roof of my apartment complex, and watch The Blue Angels deathdefy and wow. Year. After year. After year. It’s that dedication and consistent, impeccable excellence that comes across in this documentary…as well as some hella badass aerial maneuvers.
The movie is structured around a year in the life of these incredible Navy and Marine pilots (2022 to be exact). January to December, we follow the 6 pilots (Newcomers Scott “Jamammy” Goossens, Christopher “Cheese” Kapuschansky, vets Frank “Chomps” Zastoupil, Carry “Chewy” Rickoff, Julius “Whiskers” Bratton, and Captain Brian “Boss” Kesselring, in his final season), deep into training for the upcoming season that starts 3 months from Jan 1. We also see the entire 140+ person apparatus that sets these flyers up for success, as well as get introduced to the new pilots coming next year as they start training for their upcoming season (Alexander “Scribe” Armatas, Thomas “Franz” Zimmerman) including the Blue Angels first female pilot (Amanda “Stalin” Lee).
As much as Top Gun got criticized for being a Navy Recruitment Video, The Blue Angels amplifies that message a hundredfold. It’s clear from minute one this doc is not going to have any real stakes, or else the military would have vetoed the release like this (at least we do see how G force can really affect your body). However, the shameless sales job can’t help but showcase an amazing group of people. The doc goes “inside the locker room” to show the sports team ideology of everyone who works for The Blue Angels. Even if you’re not lucky enough to be one of the 6 coveted pilots, the cabin crew, equipment team, and even the wives of these pilots are considered integral to the success of the season. I would have liked to see any heated conflict between these people, and how they resolve it, but you can at least feel the genuine trust and connection necessary to find the perfection these pilots seek every mission they fly.
When everyone is so team forward though, no one’s gonna dare to stand out above anyone else. So The Blue Angels might have been best at just using voiceover during each show and giving us montages of the incredible feats on display. Watching the team fly that close from all sorts of angles is nothing short of incredible to experience. Each new location gives us a new backdrop to keep our mouths open as the pilots conduct the diamond formation through Chicago’s skyline, or on the beaches of Pensacola, or backdropped by Mount Rainier in Seattle. Each barrel roll, fly by, or speed burst pushes you back into your seat, especially if you’re lucky enough to see this in Dolby or IMAX. Like Top Gun: Maverick, you’ll certainly guffaw at the aerial dynamics each pilot puts themselves through to put on the best showcase of military precision and excellence that’ll blow the socks off of each person in attendance that day.
I would have liked to see the 2023 season, featuring Lee in her first year. But if you look up the current Blue Angels roster, she’s still there, along with Armatas and Zimmerman. That’s not a surprising result: if one thing comes across in The Blue Angels, it’s that these people are completely dedicated to their missions, and feel a sense of duty to showcase the best and brightest people in the military can be on their best days. Cue either Kenny Loggins’s Danger Zone or the Top Gun Anthem now.