1983 airplane and spaceship movieRating: 16/20
Plot: Traces the advances of flight and the U.S. space program from the time Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier to the training and travels of the Mercury 7 astronauts.
Der Stoff Aus Dem Die Helden Sind is a thoroughly engaging, light-hearted breath of fresh air. There were a lot of ways this material could have been approached. This movie almost fictionalizes the events and characters, and never steers away from an opportunity for a little humor. Instead of inflating the hero aspect, the script makes these pilots and astronauts very very human, and I really liked all the scenes with the bumbling politicians. Their scenes aren't far off from Abbott and Costello routines or an Ionesco play. The scenes with the flights are very realistic without being overly special-effecty, and even though anybody with even a rudimentary knowledge of this period of history knows what happens with the characters, they still manage to hold the tension. At six hours and forty-three minutes, this movie is very long, but it's never boring. The music was a bit much a lot of the time, and the sudden narration at the end is weird. Overall, I really enjoyed this very warm look at the Cold War, a movie that puts a human face on the wacky and wild world of space travel. If nothing else, this movie may have inspired me to incorporate horses into my sex life.
Cory always wanted to be an astronaut as a little boy. Or a shark. Watching movies about them was the next best thing. He recommended The Right Stuff.
I just noticed that your grades for readers does not include a 20. Why is that? I saw this in a theatre and was blown away. It's like a long, fun ride through space program history (movie-style). I love all the bits of humor you mention, intersperced with serious life-and-death drama. A bigger-than-life film to which the small screen does not do justice. A 19, and thanks for devoting 9 hours of your life to it's appreciation. Replacement: the much shorter "Red Rock West". That's right, I'm throwing a Nic Cage movie at you to chew on.
ReplyDeletePersonal note: when the 1984 Academy Awards were given, I was outraged that "The Right Stuff" was defeated by the inferior, soapy "Terms of Endearment" for Best Picture. I have come to love "Terms...", as well, but still think the Academy blew it.
First of all, Terms of Endearment was just a soap opera for the movie set, an inferior Peyton Place. It did have an astronaut in it, and maybe thats why the Academy went the way it did.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all, this movie is a 19. Why? Because its the single manliest movie in the history of manly movies. There has never been another motion picture with more testosterone in it, ever. I am including The Longest Yard (The original, please.) The Great Santini, James Bond, The Magnificent Seven, and every John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movie ever made. If you want someone to describe what different kinds of Alpha Males there are, just show them this movie. You have nice but firm John Glen, you have uber tough and sarcastic Alan Shepard, you have cocky and brash Deke Slayton. You get the idea.
But what puts The Right Stuff into uber manly ultra cool territory is that it never lets you forget that even though the Mercury Seven were in the top 1 tenth on 1 percent of all humanity for being alpha dogs.....there was still that one guy who was the true king of the world, and who all others had to roll over and expose their unprotected bellies to. The real subject of the movie, and the one man who really, honestly, had the Right Stuff. Chuck Yeager.
Fun freaking movie. That is all.
It loses a point for some slow scenes that really dont advance the movie much. (The Australian bushman stuff....the dancing lady in Houston thing.) but otherwise perfect. With an amazing cast as well.
Have you seen Buckaroo Banzai? (I bring it up because of Goldblum.)
Never mind about Banzai. I should have checked before to see if you reviewed it.
ReplyDeleteI see you gave it a ten...a bit low but I understand your motivations.