Top Gun aims at offenders

Jun 15 2008 by James McCarthy, Wales On Sunday

VIOLENT offenders are being forced to watch ‘80s action blockbuster Top Gun to STOP them being violent.

The 1986 movie, directed by Hollywood’s Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise, is being shown to ex-cons as part of the national Controlling Anger and Learning to Manage it course – or CALM.

The hit film follows ace Tomcat pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and pal Nick “Goose” Bradshaw as they train to fend off attacks from aircraft from an unnamed country.

It was inspired by a magazine article about fighter pilots at Miramar Naval Air Station. Miramar is nicknamed “Fightertown USA”.

And the film famously features a bar scene where Maverick sings The Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling in a bar to love interest Kelly McGillis.

It’s theme tune, the love song Take My Breath Away, was a No 1 hit for the group Berlin shortly after the film was released.

Jane Coates, Gwent Probation’s chief officer, said: “Along with a number of other probation areas, Gwent uses a section of the film Top Gun, which covers, among other things, the death of a close comrade of the main character.

“Offenders are encouraged to discuss the range of emotions which the scenes include, to explore the character’s responses and to identify ways in which those feelings might have been handled.

“Anger management courses are one of the most successful interventions in the Accredited Programmes portfolio and research findings from last year indicate that offenders who complete the course are 14.2% less likely to reoffend than those who do not have the opportunity to participate.”

It is understood that offenders are given the choice of either watching the film as part of the CALM course or face going to jail. They are shown segments of Top Gun and asked to list the emotions Cruise’s character is going through. They must also interpret the body language, speech and behaviour of characters in the movie. The idea is that they will learn to identify with people rather than thump them.

One former inmate revealed: “You have to recognise when he (Cruise’s character) feels angry or betrayed or whatever.

“It’s to get you to realise that we all get feelings like anger and jealousy, but you can calm yourself down and re-evaluate a situation.”

But he joked: “I’d never watched it in my life and I’ll never watch it again. It made me angry – no it didn’t!”

But Monmouthshire MP David Davies, a special constable, was infuriated by the scheme.

He seethed: “People don’t need to be sent on courses to manage their anger. They need to know that if they are violent they will go to prison.

“The probation service exists to keep people out of prison – people who need to be behind bars. We’ve had about 30 years of anti-prison propaganda which has led people to erroneously believe that prison is expensive. Prisons do work.”

But Ms Coates argued there was “considerable evidence” the anger-management course helped offenders address their feelings of anger.

She said: “CALM, Controlling Anger and Learning to Manage it, is based on a considerable amount of evidence on what works in stopping offenders commit crimes.

“The programme comprises 24 2½ hour sessions, over 12 weeks, and is directed towards enabling offenders to understand and address issues related to their ability to control feelings of anger and other strong emotions.”

james.mccarthy@mediawales.co.uk