Today marks the 47th anniversary of John Glenn’s flight into space. Last Friday was Chuck Yeager’s 86th birthday. To celebrate both, it was only natural that I watch The Right Stuff.
Written and directed by Philip Kaufman (from the book by Tom Wolfe), the film chronicles the early days of the United States manned space effort. Like the book, however, it starts with test pilots, specifically Chuck Yeager. In 1947, the US is looking for a way to break the sound barrier. They design an experimental rocket plane, the X-1, which they believe is the right tool for the job. Now they just need a pilot, and they find Yeager.
Kaufman, at the time a San Francisco Bay Area-based independent filmmaker, successfully made what is almost an anti-epic epic. While a big-screen production in every way, The Right Stuff has a certain gritty, indie film vibe to it. The majority of the film was done in the SF Bay Area. Kaufman sought, as much as possible, to use locations that were a close match to where the real events happened. Key scenes at air bases were shot at the deactivated Hamilton Air Force Base in Marin County. The hospital where the astronaut candidates are examined was a condemned military hospital in San Francisco. Other scenes were shot in some of San Francisco’s older buildings, and Glenn’s ticket tape parade was duplicated in SF’s financial district. Kaufman seemed to want to avoid working LA in much the same way as so many of us want to avoid the plague.
The special effects company was formed from Colossal Pictures, an SF animation house. For the film, co-owner Gary Gutierrez formed USFX. He and Kaufman opted for a non-traditional way of creating the flying sequences. Or, more accurately, they returned to a very old fashioned way: They threw models through the air and filmed them with hand-held cameras. It’s astounding how well that worked, especially when combined with actual documentary footage from the period.
For the most part, the cast was made up of little known actors. Some have gone on to become major stars, including Sam Shepard (as Yeager), Scott Glenn (as Alan Shepard), Ed Harris (as Glenn), and Dennis Quaid (as Gordon Cooper). The real Chuck Yeager played Fred, a regular at the Happy Bottom Riding Club (a key facet of life at what would become Edwards Air Force Base). And in the trivia department, both of Zooey Deschnel’s parents worked on The Right Stuff. Her father, Caleb, was director of photography, while her mother, Mary Jo, played Anne, John Glenn’s wife.
This is one of my favorite films. It plays very well on home theatre systems, but is amazing on the big screen. I first saw it during its original release in 1983, at the now-defunct Northpoint Theatre in SF. The screen was huge, the Dolby sound perfect, and the experience unforgettable. The film grabs your attention from the moment you hear that simple opening beat from Bill Conti’s Oscar-winning score.
I do have some quibbles. I wish the film had eased up on Gus Grissom a bit. Yes, there’s the question that maybe he panicked and blew open his capsule’s hatch too soon, resulting in its loss at sea, but the book is gentler here. Grissom, later killed in the Apollo 1 fire, deserves a little more benefit of the doubt. The film does redeem him, and itself, later on, but still, the actual interrogation scenes area painful to watch. Also, while I’m not a massive Lyndon Johnson fan, he was played a little too much as a clown.
Others have complained that the film ridicules the early space effort too much. While I agree, to an extent, I believe the film successfully has it both ways. At the beginning of the space program, we had no idea what flight in space would be like, and therefore had no idea who would qualify and what to test for. So we looked at everyone and tested for everything. From a modern perspective, it’s all rather silly and amusing, and Kaufman allows events to play that way. In the meanwhile, those involved are deadly serious, perplexed by what’s going on but accepting of the risks and extremes. While we have our laughs for a while, we come to realize that the coming endeavor is fraught with lethal unknowns.
The cinematography is superb, the editing spot on, the sound so integral that it’s near impossible to imagine seeing this film without surround sound. Conti’s score is iconic, and it’s tragic that it’s never been released for sale (that thing that was combined with his music for North and South doesn’t count). In the whole, the film pulls us into a time when we dared great things, not even realizing just how great they were. Two of the film’s best moments are its quietest: When Yeager talks with his wife while they stand in the burned out ruins of the bar, and Glenn talking to his wife about the importance of what they’re trying to do.
The Right Stuff takes the technological explorations of aviation and space, and presents them as very human endeavors. These were men, willing and eager to hurl their bodies through the air, all for the sake of seeing what it was like, and, yes, for some personal aggrandizement. They were driven by something more, though, and you can hear it in little ways; from Yeager (“Count me in.”) to Shepard (“Sounds dangerous…sign me up.”) to Glenn (“We’re ready, 100%.”) They knew the risks, both to themselves and to their families, stepped up, and got to work.
If you ever get the chance to see The Right Stuff at a proper theatre, go. Until then, pick up the DVD, tune up your home theatre system, and sit back to enjoy a great film. You don’t often see work of this caliber, and it’s unlikely we’ll see a story of this sort ever again.
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