China Just Made A 6 Minute Propaganda Film That Wants To Be Top Gun

You know how most of us laugh at throwback propaganda posters and wonder how our ancestors could have possibly been won over by images that were such blatant hard sells of patriotism? That collective American cynicism has altered the way the federal government tries to change public opinion, but in certain other countries, right on the nose is still the preferred method. Take China, as an example. The country just churned out a badass aircraft carrier; so, to celebrate, the powers that be decided to shell out for a sleek, polished 6-minute video that makes the whole thing look like Top Gun, minus the volleyball.

God only knows how long this took to film and how many Yuan it cost, but the filmmakers clearly worked hard to incorporate as many time-tested film elements as possible. Let’s go over them quickly…

We’ve got your standard, “tense control room scene”, featuring these older men with somber expressions and apparently no idea what needs to be done…

We’ve got a splashy mid-movie musical number featuring this dude with a below average moustache and a way, way, way above average pimp white suit. Take special note of his liberal usage of hand gestures and his total pro-like willingness to tune out airplanes taking off behind him…

And, of course, we’ve got our own Goose and Maverick. Look at these two steely-eyed lady killers walking down the aircraft carrier with an intense amount of swagger. You know they’re probably stoked about reading the script and figuring out neither of them dies. In a related note, I think it’s pretty obvious who is who…

The official title of the video is Leader For The Dream because of course it is, and while the American version seen above hasn’t been watched that many times, the original has been consumed by more than two million people, as per The New York Times. That sounds like a giant win to me, and honestly, it makes me question what the hell our government has been spending its promotional budget on. I mean, it certainly didn’t go to this.

Maybe some day we’ll start getting tributes to our military power. Until then, we’ll have to keep using Canadian pop songs to pump us up for the Olympics.