Dec 30th
The Right Stuff** US 1983. Warner Bros/The Ladd Company. 192m.
The development of the NASA Mercury Space Program, told in tandem with one non-astronaut's attempts to break the sound barrier.
Commendable adaptation of Tom Wolfe's epic character study of the test pilots and their families in the course of making history, well crafted to capture the period with some epic moments and good performances, yet somehow the magnitude of the real life events seems a little blunted and not quite so well captured as the amusing training scenes are. Perhaps each historic achievement was more evenly covered in one book than in a 3-hour film.
Written and Directed by: Philip Kaufman, from the novel by Tom Wolfe.
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler.
Starring: Scott Shepard (Chuck Yeager), Scott Glenn (Alan Shepherd), Ed Harris (John Glenn), Dennis Quaid (Gordon Cooper), Fred Ward (Gus Grissom), Barbara Hershey, Pamela Reed, Veronica Cartwright, Kim Stanley, Mary Jo Deschanel, Scott Paulin, Charles Frank, Lance Henriksen, Donald Moffat (as Lyndon B. Johnson), Jeff Goldblum, Harry Shearer, Levon Helm.
Photography: Caleb Deschanel.
Music: Bill Conti.
Production Design: Geoffrey Kirkland.
The Right Stuff** US 1983. Warner Bros/The Ladd Company. 192m.
The development of the NASA Mercury Space Program, told in tandem with one non-astronaut's attempts to break the sound barrier.
Commendable adaptation of Tom Wolfe's epic character study of the test pilots and their families in the course of making history, well crafted to capture the period with some epic moments and good performances, yet somehow the magnitude of the real life events seems a little blunted and not quite so well captured as the amusing training scenes are. Perhaps each historic achievement was more evenly covered in one book than in a 3-hour film.
Written and Directed by: Philip Kaufman, from the novel by Tom Wolfe.
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler.
Starring: Scott Shepard (Chuck Yeager), Scott Glenn (Alan Shepherd), Ed Harris (John Glenn), Dennis Quaid (Gordon Cooper), Fred Ward (Gus Grissom), Barbara Hershey, Pamela Reed, Veronica Cartwright, Kim Stanley, Mary Jo Deschanel, Scott Paulin, Charles Frank, Lance Henriksen, Donald Moffat (as Lyndon B. Johnson), Jeff Goldblum, Harry Shearer, Levon Helm.
Photography: Caleb Deschanel.
Music: Bill Conti.
Production Design: Geoffrey Kirkland.
Labels: adventure
posted by Joe at 9:54 PM
2 Comments:
Wow Joe, I haven't seen that film for ages! I'm going to have to get it now for my DVD collection! I do recall that the training scenes were very good. Isn't there a scene in "Armageddon" that references these, where Bruce Willis and the other engineers walk in slow-motion towards the camera, and one of the military types says, "talk about the wrong stuff."
Wasn't there a longer TV version of this film? I'm sure BBC showed it once or twice, and it seemed like a longer running time to me.
Happy New Year, Derek & Carla. I'd been meaning to see this film before the end of 2007, mainly because of the great title music by Bill Conti. Barbara Hershey (Mrs Yeager) reminds me a little of Carrie Fisher in appearance.
The DVD I rented has extras including a 90 minute documenary about John Glenn. Ed Harris plays him very well.
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