The Right Stuff Poll

put em up, Herbert Pocket

Until last week, I would not have been able to name the iconic but little-remembered character actor who appeared in this and the original Twin Peaks series.

yes, it was '50s western fixture Royal Dano, who played the Minister aka Death in TRS and Judge Sternwood in TP.

He was also the Disney park voice of Lincoln for many years, after playing him on TV.

Saw this when it came out, again a few years later, and not since till today (70mm screening at the Lightbox). Really good. Trying to think of a comparable film in scale from the past 35 years--not Apollo 13, which I remember as a much lesser version, not even necessarily space-related--something big and historical and free-wheeling...Carlos comes to mind, not much else. A reminder of how great Veronica Cartwright and Pamela Reed were. (The film's treatment of the women and the Hispanic NASA guy--the one who recoils from Scott Glenn's Bill Dana impression--felt pretty current.) Watching Ed Harris play a Boy Scout was extra funny--every time I see him nowadays he's like a George Kennedy caricature, growling "goddammit" and "son of a bitch" way too often. Goldblum and Harry Shearer and Donald Moffat as LBJ were funny. I don't really remember how this was received in 1983. I mean the tone--I know it got great reviews. Was it talked about as a film Reagan would love, a straightforward celebration of old-fashioned heroism? It seems a lot subtler than that.

i was thinking about this movie today due to First Man's recent release, and it's really a perfect flick. a couple other favorite elements i don't think were commented on: John P. Ryan as this character representing the publicly avuncular/occasionally duplicitous face of NASA, and the insect swarming sounds accompanying every appearance by the press and photographers as they chase down quotes and shots of the astronauts and their wives.

this was ... pretty bad? baffled at the near universal praise in this thread. Alternated between reverential, ponderously slow recreations of events and then a bunch of corny "comical" sequences involving enema bags, urinating in space suits, and how much of an uptight jerk John Glenn was. I made it to Shepherd's launch and then bailed.

maybe it's the source material (I wouldn't know, you couldn't pay me to read Tom Wolfe. Seeing this after reading Oriana Falacci just made it seem juvenile and clumsy.

but was Dennis Quaid smoking', ROWR?

Harris and his wife, Fred Ward's squirming, LBJ in the limo -- it switches from irreverent to affection quite well. The Shepard scenes are the most ponderous, the ones in the cafe the silliest -- the men waiting for news about who died remind me of the vultures in Splash Mountain.

it has that tricky balance of respecting the main characters while poking a bit of fun at them, regarding them as outsized heroes and then bringing them down to size in a way that is empathetic and understanding, and not cutting them down. the absurdities really work so well, i think as a satire of sorts it's very well-crafted and smart and of course super entertaining.

that score too, my god. a truly great film that i've seen in full maybe once, but in parts dozens of times

theme song by NKOTB not bad either

per an Apollo book, Chasing the Moon, reviewed in last Sunday's NYTBR, Chuck Yeager told other candidates in an aerospace trainee program not to speak to the sole black candidate, Air Force pilot Edward Dwight. Dwight was essentially forced out of the program by Yeager.

movies is movies

Edwards AFB released the complete film of Yeager's crash in the NF-104. 56 years ago today. (also, it's terrifying!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e32CPRXEZ7s

Big ol' new interview with Kaufman on it

https://www.vulture.com/article/how-philip-kaufman-made-the-right-stuff-movie.html