The Right Stuff Poll

Dennis Quaid is smokin' in this movie. ROWR.

RIDLEY, MAKE ANOTHER NOTE, WOULD YOU?
MY NAME... JOSE JIMENEZ
I JUST THANK GOD I LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHERE THE BEST IN A MAN CAN BE BROUGHT OUT. I MEAN THAT.
WHO'S THE BEST PILOT YOU EVER SAW?
FUCKIN'-A, BUBBA
...
YOU WERE PROBABLY JUST GETTING WARMED UP, JOHN. NEXT TIME, I'D DOUBT I'D WIN
[Σ]

I have never seen this movie

which is kinda odd considering how into the space program I am

no Shearer & Goldblum, no cred

Need a parallel poll for the wives.

so is this actually any good?

more reverential than the book, but worth seeing

Shakey Mo, you should go ahead and rent it this weekend. It's all kinds of good.

Fred Ward as Gus pwnz.

no Hershey, Cartwright, Reed, Deschanel, no credibility
no Stanley, Helm, Dano, no credibility
no Moffat, Beach, no credibility

I didn't like Moffat too much, although I guess you can't underplay LBJ.

more reverential than the book

eh, i dunno about that

i don't unreservedly like it - some of the politics of the original material/figures even moreso than the movie are not mine - but it's basically my favorite movie of all time

I'm thinking John Glenn never asked the wife if he was a Harry Hairshirt either

Hershey should be in the 2nd list, actually

Only arestronuts and test pilus have ritw stuff, nrz!!!!!!!

But yeah, there are a ton of great performances here that don't really fit in the poll.

like these?

"Southwestern Waltz" Performed by Bob Wills
"Faraway Places" Performed by Margaret Whiting
"I Got A Rocket In My Pocket" Performed by Jimmy Lloyd
"Wheels Of Fortune" Performed by Kay Starr
"Tennessee Waltz" Performed by Patti Page
"Yablochka" Performed by the Andreyev Balalaika Ensemble
"The Wayward Wind" Performed by Gogi Grant
"Good Golly Miss Molly" Performed by Little Richard
"Hallelujah Chorus" Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra
"La Bamba" Performed by Chubby Checker
"I Only Have Eyes For You" Performed by The Flamingos
"Taiko Drums" Performed by Seiichi Tanaka
"Anchors Aweigh" Performed by Banda Taurina
"The Marines' Hymn" ['Performed' by Ed Harris]
"The U.S. Air Force" ['Performed' by Dennis Quaid]
"White Dawn" Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra
"Mars, Jupiter & Neptune" Performed by The Boston Symphony Orchestra
"Wake Up Little Susie" Performed by The Everly Brothers
"Claire de Lune" (uncredited)
"Breaking The Sound Barrier" Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra
"Almost Ready" Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra
"The Training" Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra
"Glenn's Flight" Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra
"Yeager's Flight" Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra

Ebert's original review

more reverential than the book

of Yeager, this is probably true. of the others, not so much.

while the movie deals in interesting themes that weren't really present in the book, it's no journalistic enterprise. the whole Schirra storyline, which gets a not unimportant chapter in the book, was excised presumably because it wasn't sexy or funny enough - the best he gets other than the introduction is a cheap gag in the background.

so is this actually any good?

It's *very* good, and even if it wasn't, you'd still have to see it to remain a citizen of the US. They passed that law in the late 80's, iirc.

The Bill Conti score is his fonest moment. Yeah, no shit -- better than Rocky.

fInest

no Hershey, Cartwright, Reed, Deschanel, no credibility
no Stanley, Helm, Dano, no credibility
no Moffat, Beach, no credibility

Totally otm. I refuse to vote in this poll on the grounds that it has no women in it, and the wives are as important as the badasses and daredevils. The movie spends a lot of time on that point, actually. How could you leave out the women, fer chrissakes? I'm not trying to be all cap'n save-an-astronaut-wife, but come on... Barbara Hershey didn't even cross your mind?

And I will totally defend Moffat's LBJ against anyone who think's it's way over the top. It's maybe a *little* over the top. And if LBJ can't be comic relief, who can?

(I love this movie, in case you can't tell.)

no, really?

I did think about opening it up a bit, but there's no chixxors or Feddzors on the DVD box, so...

Also: TRS STRK poll is v good idea.

this thread could go on for 2 weeks without even mentioning Philip Kaufman's name, cuz he's not a Spike/Quentin-style self-promoter?

His Invasion of the Body Snatchers '78 is better than this, though.

although I recently watched The Unbearable Lightness of Being again, and you'd have no idea why anyone thought it should be 3 hrs long if you haven't read the book.

Strangely haven't seen any of his others besides those 3:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0442241/

I (barely) remember Henry and June as being kind of yawnsome. Rising Sun sure looked like crap, but I never saw that either.

you've never seen Quills?

Kaufman was on a roll for a while: Anthony Minghella with an impish gleam.

xp: no, I saw the French movie about Marquis de Sade (D Auteuil) that came out around then instead.

this thread could go on for 2 weeks without even mentioning Philip Kaufman's name, cuz he's not a Spike/Quentin-style self-promoter?

we apologize for not being as with-it as you. who do you propose to poll him against? caleb d? brooks? bergman? beatty?

quite obviously kaufman is not as bandied-about because he has far less discernable style, his movies by and large have little to do with youth culture let alone the present, and because he's an old man

with-it, klassik

i thot i shd use old-man terms

Is the William Goldman bit about Kaufman and the screenplay online anywhere? Google is unhelpful.

Can't believe no one has mentioned Scott Glenn yet. Dude is James Coburn with even more attitude.

I voted Scott Glenn.

So did I.

gobb, you shd use old-man suppositories

witty!

Dave Kehr, who didn't really get the movie (shocker), said the performances "range from the merely excellent (Scott Glenn) to the sublime (Ed Harris)"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I voted Fred Ward cuz I love Fred Ward.

fuckin a, bubba.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Yay Fred Ward!

Those are five really good performances there that got votes.

the performances "range from the merely excellent (Scott Glenn) to the sublime (Ed Harris)"

this is very true

i saw this twice in the theater when i was 7, this is a really great, super entertaining movie. kind of hard to believe it's almost as long as godfather II.

and Terms of Endearment beat it for Best Picture!

probably because it was a relative financial disappointment, which is also totally hard to believe because this is exactly the type of epic movie that you'd think would scare up 70-80 mill

the special fx hold up pretty good too!

Patriotic as fuck, too, which seldom hurts.

it's a complicated, ironic patriotism, which wasn't too in vogue at the time

i didn't vote, but i think i'd say ward edges harris edges maybe scott glenn, though it's a little hard to see the actor apart from the character in hindsight given that the characters defined the actors for me. shepard does a whole lot without saying a word, but his line readings seem kinda off in the early part of the movie - maybe it's intentional that he becomes more fluent as time passes. and if i'm ranking quaid 4th or 5th am i underselling fun?

hershey's character blows the other wives off the screen, but i think cartwright is the best female performance.

"Ironic patriotism" or "ironic reverence" is a good description (except for the Yeager bits). I can't think of another big budget American film from the time that didn't take itself too seriously and was crazy-entertaining.

i still find that last flight of yeager pretty terrifying

That wasn't a parachute dragging behind him at the end; it was his poop.

man what a great fuckin movie. i think this might be my favorite cast ever - you put any 2 of those five main guys in a movie and i'll watch it, but all of em? yowie zowie!!! even the guy who plays yeager's mechanic is awesome. the women are great too - veronica cartwright, barbara hershey, mary jo deschanel, and pamela reed most of all - kim stanley's sorta wasted, but so is lance henriksen. im sure if they knew what they had on their hands in ol' lance they would've cooked up more for him to do~

terms of fuckin endearment won best pic, that movie had only one astronaut

re: the poll its gotta be ed harris. fred ward (who is one of my favorite dudes in the world) has his share of great scenes, especially panicking in the capsule and the aftermath with his wife, but harris has pretty much all the best bits - the tender scenes with his wife, the phone scene, the press conference, "those... darn russians!"

something i never realized: that's hall of fame left tackle anthony munoz playing gonzalez!

last time i saw this movie i noticed how ripped scott glenn was

haha same. i guess he's always been pretty sinewy. also was realizing how joker-like dennis quaid's smile is

i kinda like the vv subtle and maybe unintended implication about grissom kinda being a star-crossed (lol) astronaut, i mean of course that event did occur but to me it kind of foreshadows a bit.

Whatever happened to Oilyrags, anyway?

final post:

50 Great Neil Young Covers

This was great. Yeah maybe reverential or whatever but had a great sense of humor, like those repeated shots of Jeff Goldblum's super serious and always late g-man running to that office. And the scene where the dude has to pee and they keep cutting to, like, people drinking water, pouring tea, talking about how much coffee they drank, etc.

I mainly saw this cos i got into Jordan Belson a few years ago and heard he did some visual effects stuff for this. It was pretty impressive!

This sucks so far when is it going to not suck

The Shite Stuff

Ok president office scene goldblum shearer it got great

man what a great fuckin movie. i think this might be my favorite cast ever - you put any 2 of those five main guys in a movie and i'll watch it, but all of em? yowie zowie!!! even the guy who plays yeager's mechanic is awesome.

yeager's mechanic is played by Levon Helm! yeah great role, perfect choice of a narrator for the film too.

The longer ed Harris goes without killing his wife the worse the tension gets

Jeff Goldblum Is Watching You Puke (off the side of an aircraft carrier)

SPEC-I-MEN

Best movie

it's very entertaining but the tone is a bit have-yr-cake-and-eat-it

mmm a right stuff cake would be great. "Let's light this candle!"

Weird that Yeager is the only guy to outlive the actor who played him.

test pilot in character

Yeager in 1983 looked like an elderly guy next to Shepard, who was only 38 or 39 when they filmed it.

that film was made 24 years after the selection of the astronauts, and is now 34 years old.

NYers, showing in 70mm at MOMI tonight

Pamela Reed sorely missing from this poll.

Scott Glenn is still ripped... he's a 78-yo martial arts nut.

Dennis Quaid, if you're lurking, i would still eat you out anytime.

most of these guys aged into real charismatic weathered-leather ruggedness huh

god i love this movie, i'd kill to see it in 70mm

It's loud! But it has to be.

Dennis Quaid, if you're lurking, i would still eat you out anytime.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius),

fight you

guys, guys, there's enough ass for everyone, just be chill

good news fellas, there probably *is* a Quaid brother lurking here

i hope it's doug

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

one of my earliest moviegoing memories was seeing this in the theater with my dad, so it was nice to watch it with both my dad and my kid this past weekend.

when i was a kid, the performances that really jumped out at me were Glenn and Harris, but also Pamela Reed, who is as good as anyone else in the film. So much so that my memory had her in this a lot more than she was.

it was probably a necessity of runtime but they really didn't do much with Lance Henriksen at all, though like most of the other actors playing the 7, they really nailed it in casting someone who looked like his real-life counterpart.

there's a lot of Maverick in Top Gun in Quaid's performance.

my kid loved the Shearer/Goldblum scenes, which gives the government side of the story the respect it deserves. this movie is really, really funny though, i appreciate the occasional cheap humor it goes for.

it remains absolutely unbelievable to me this didn't make a mint at the box office, but what Kaufman says about the promotion is probably right. the posters were terrible, it really needed something colorful and thrilling and Yeager-inclusive, not the bland one-sheet they released, it looked like it was a promotional flyer seeking new astronauts to join NASA.