Caro.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (11/01/83)
"The Right Stuff": Well, if you like REAL men who go where men are men, and women are women, and federal bureaucrats are bumbling idiots. If you like fly-boy philosophy and fly-boy antics. If you like team spirit and raw guts, you'll probably like this movie. It's about the space program, from the X-1 to the last Mercury flight and the men (and their wives) who made American space flight great. "The Right Stuff" stars a bunch of unknowns. The only actor I recognized was the "Mutt" of a Mutt and Jeff pair of federal agents. This tall guy also appears as Michael in "The Big Chill". The guy that plays Yeager does a damn good job of being a REAL man. Fuckin' A Bubba! Oh, yes, I should explain that. Gus Grissom is protrayed as a sullen, brooding, quiet but powerful type. He spends most of the movie giving the thumbs up and saying "Fuckin' A Bubba!" anytime he agrees with something. SFX are negligible and primitive, but this is ok since this is a story about "people", or that's what it says on the lable anyway. No gratuitous sex or violence. There are quite a few humorous moments, especially when LBJ is lampooned. Good cinematograpy. Competent direction. What else can I say? One thing that I found myself wondering during the movie is that, during the scenes where the astronauts are shown at press conferences, were the things that the actors said ACTUALLY what the originals had said, verbatim? Or was some poetic license involved? If the former turns out to be true, I'd love to see the newsreels that those scenes were based on. You wouldn't believe some of the gung-ho jive that John Glenn (the Clean Marine) was spouting! It was a riot! On the Commodore's Scale of Merit (six bells being all's well) I'd give this movie a 4. Commodore Perry
Poskanzer.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (11/01/83)
From: Jef Poskanzer <Poskanzer.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA> "The guy that plays Yeager" turns out to be famous playwright Sam Shepard. Yeager's wife Glennis was played by Barbara Hershey, an experienced if obscure actor. I believe at one point she changed her name to Barbara Seagull, but later changed it back. Those two and the one you mentioned were the only actors I recognized. --- Jef
RAcosta.ES@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (11/01/83)
Some of the actors in this movie may be remembered for past supporting roles. Particularly, Ed Harris who portrayed John Glenn (ex-Marine heavy in "Borderline" with Charles Bronson) and Scott Glenn who portrayed Alan Shepard (the track coach in "Personal Best" and the mescal-drinking-worm-eating heavy in "Urban Cowboy"). /Rod.
Johnsson.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (11/01/83)
My wife and I read the book while on vacation last month and saw the movie last night. As we left the theater my wife said "The book was much better." "It always is," replied an anonomous voice in the crowd. Read the book. It is especially enlightening in view of John Glenn's current aspirations.
jcaplan.ES@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (11/01/83)
Just a couple of points about "The Right Stuff" --Sam Shepard (who portrays Chuck Yeager) is anything but an unknown, at least in literary circles. He is a well recognized dramatist, his most famous works being "Buried Child" and "True West." --Also, I have not seen the movie, but in the clips that I've seen, the scenes of the astronauts during the press conferences are almost exact duplications of the actual press conferences. In fact, I have seen part of the original John Glenn newsreel, and I found real life to be almost indistinguishable from the movie. --Lastly, John Glenn does not come off so wonderfully in the book. Tom Wolfe portrays him in a similar vein to MASH's Frank Burns, i.e. he is a little too clean-cut, a little too by-the-book. But there is never any doubt of his patriotism or his "right stuff." Jay
Fikes.pa@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (11/01/83)
Interesting tidbit about "The Right Stuff". The real Chuck Yeager was a consultant on the film and actually appears in a couple of scenes. He is the old guy behind the bar when the guys arrive from Washington to recruit the test pilots to be astronauts. richard (By the way, I also recommend seeing it. Exciting stuff. The book is even better.)
jsq@ut-sally.UUCP (John Quarterman) (11/19/83)
> Interesting tidbit about "The Right Stuff". The real Chuck Yeager was a > consultant on the film and actually appears in a couple of scenes. He > is the old guy behind the bar when the guys arrive from Washington to > recruit the test pilots to be astronauts. Both Chuck Yeager and Gordon Cooper were technical consultants on the movie. They and several of the actors appeared at the World SF convention over labor day (the only time I have ever seen hard-core sf fans give *two* minute-long standing ovations in a row on the mere announcement of names). The special effects in the movie are impressive, but not perfect. E.g., Glen's retros are shown still being on the capsule much too far down. Yeager's comment: "For every one like you who would notice something like that there are a thousand others, and we've already got your money." Said he heard that from Clint Eastwood when he worked on FireFox. -- John Quarterman, CS Dept., University of Texas, Austin, Texas {ihnp4,seismo,kpno,ctvax}!ut-sally!jsq, jsq@ut-sally.{ARPA,UUCP}