***1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Fred Ward, Scott Glenn, Veronica Cartwright, Lance Henriksen, and Dennis Quaid
Directed & written for the screen by Philip Kaufman, from the book by Tom Wolfe
1983
193 min PG
Hack producer Jerry Bruckheimer (“The Rock,” “Bad Boys II”) had absolutely nothing to do with the making of “The Right Stuff.” But the movie stumbles ever-so-slightly in those interludes when we realize that he must have seen it and thought it the best film ever. There’s something a little ham-handed in how the movie cuts back to the pilots’ wives during crucial moments, in the overuse of the phrase “pushing the envelope,” and in the obvious payoffs of the “macho fighter pilots” vs. the “buttoned-down authority figure” fights.
But that’s small criticism for a splendid, stirring film, capable of more complexity and ambivalence than Bruckheimer could ever dream of. (It’s fair to harp on Bruckheimer, because every space shuttle movie since “The Right Stuff” has tried to be “The Right Stuff,” most especially Bruckheimer’s Bicep vs. Asteroid thriller, “Armageddon.) What ambivalence? Bruckheimer flicks wallow unambiguously in technology worship, beer commercial-style patriotism, and all-around penis awe. He apparently did not notice that “The Right Stuff” does all this with, if not irony or satire, then at least wisdom. Based on the book by Tom Wolfe about the early days of the American space program, “The Right Stuff” revels in the transient glory of mankind’s accomplishments. Beginning with a man staring at a new jet plane with raw, animal admiration (from horseback, no less), the movie switches between the cutting edge and the obsolete.
At over three hours, the movie is epic without being pompous, and recreates the crew-cut, bright-white teeth era down to the smallest detail. A combination of models, recreations, and news footage, all the launches, tests, and orbits are elevated into icons and myths. The big rockets and jets are gazed at sexually. The decision of director Kaufman to show the reflections of clouds and outer space across the visors of wildly joyous astronauts is a brilliant one, with truly moving results. “The Right Stuff” does not shy away from claiming that America would not be where it was in space if the Russians didn’t go there first. This leads to several of the film’s most cinematic moments, as the image of a portly, laughing Communist is superimposed over trailing rocket exhaust.
We start not with the space program but with Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, a virtuoso combination of models, motion, and music. As played by Sam Shepard, Yeager is the epitome of manliness: half-drunk and monosyllabic, and calmly walking away from obliterated aircraft while remarking “I think my head broke the canopy.” (My wife remarked “he was the guy in that field movie, right?” and I said “you mean ‘Field of Dreams?’” and she said “no, ‘Days of Heaven.’”) Yet he is not a clean-cut college graduate. He is not astronaut material and the way of the future leaves him behind.
For the rest of the film, as we watch the first astronauts go through centrifuges and piss in cups, we cut back to the outmoded lot of the terrestrial test pilot, drinking beer by the desert. We follow the first seven astronauts, including the super clean-cut John Glenn (Ed Harris), step-by-step, through their selection, their training, and their first launches. We meet space chimps and we listen to the debates over whether it’s even necessary to put humans in orbit at this early stage (some would argue that manned space flight is STILL not necessary and should be left to the machines...but if the movies have taught us anything it is to fear super-intelligent robots in space). Kaufman balances a wealth of material here, keeping us apprised of an enormous number of characters, technical details, and anecdotes, while never getting so bogged down that “The Right Stuff” loses its forward momentum. After the rockets are a success, we witness the buying of NASA by Texas and the selling of the dream to the American people. The movie also takes its time over the characters of the test pilots, many of whom see fast, high, and loud as directly correlative to football, barbecues, and all-around suburban wholesomeness.
“The Right Stuff” was nominated for a pile of Oscars, losing Picture and Director to “Terms of Endearment” while winning for Sound, Sound Editing, Film Editing, and Bill Conti’s score, which includes some Vangelis impersonations. The movie concludes with an awesome one-two punch: first, in one of those images that will stick with you for years, Yeager flies so high that the clouds and the sky peel back and turn to outer space. Second, the last (Dennis Quaid) of the original seven astronauts is also the cockiest. When he finally gets into orbit, faster and higher and longer than any man before him, the film’s narrator could practically be quoting Ecclesiastes as he declares that “for a brief time, Gordon Cooper was the greatest pilot who ever lived.”
Finished Tuesday, April 12th, 2005
Copyright © 2005 Friday & Saturday Night
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