Iceman and Drago (cast as the unlovable rivals in “Top Gun” and “Rocky IV”) were actually fiercely devoted workers, the kind of “go to’’ model employees any manager would love. Of course, there is more to work and labor than being completely mission-focused. We work to achieve a higher calling than work itself. That higher calling is the purpose of the leisure we enjoy on Sundays and holiday weekends.

In Defense of Iceman

Workers, workaholics and why we must remember the reason for leisure this Labor Day and every weekend.

By Joseph Serwach

Flashback Cinema brings classics to theaters. A voice kept telling we needed to see “Top Gun.” You notice something new on the big screen even if you’ve seen it many times on video.

We were reminded the (now rare) combination of action, romance and patriotism made “Top Gun” the biggest film of 1986 and sent military recruitment numbers soaring to new records. As I watched the credits, I was reminded that two Michigan State men (Jim Cash and Jack Epps) wrote this beautiful story.

But then it hit me, something I’d never once noticed before: Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) gets all the attention (he is by far the quintessential American rebel character), breaking the rules, grabbing the glory and getting the girl. John McCain and Sarah Palin reveled in calling themselves “Mavericks,” going for that same pure patriotic rebel feeling.

But the best pilot and hardest worker (the hidden star of “Top Gun”) is his rival, Iceman.

And if you pay attention, you learn Iceman’s real name is Tom Kaczynski. Oh sure, it’s spelled and pronounced different ways online (Poles hide their original Polish names and non-Poles are happy to pretend we aren’t Polish) but it was…