Posted: 10/17/2013 2:54:34 PM EDT
|
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086197/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Man, what a great movie. Funny, moving, awe-inspiring. For those who don't know, it's about the Mercury 7 and Chuck Yeager. It's got a great cast (Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn). I really liked how the film didn't strictly lionize these men who would strap themselves into columns of explosives to be flung beyond the bounds of Earth. It showed that they were human - arrogant dicks, lovers of racist humor (apparently Alan Shepard frequently did an impression of a minstrel-y Mexican character), sometimes cheating on their wives. The one part I wasn't wild about was the Chuck Yeager stuff. Probably half an hour could have been cut from this three-hour flick if the Yeager subplot, which only had a passing connection to the main Mercury plot, had been discarded (apparently Tom Wolfe wrote the book about people who had 'the right stuff' to push the envelope of aerospace technological performance, which obviously included Yeager). Dropping Yeager would have tightened the movie up considerably. Anyway, a great movie about exciting times and bold pioneers. Highly recommended. |
|
The Yeager parts were integral to the message of the film - to show the transistion (or dichotomy or whatever) between the unsung heroes of that age of aviation and the media circus that the space program became. Even when America became aware and enthralled with the space race guys like Yeager were still, and are still, doing the unheralded and dangerous work of pushing the envelope.
ETA: It is almost a shame that he was portrayed as kind of a "cowboy" since in reality test pilots have high professional demands; flight plans, performance expectations, and what not. |
|
Quoted:
The Yeager parts were integral to the message of the film - to show the transistion (or dichotomy or whatever) between the unsung heroes of that age of aviation and the media circus that the space program became. Even when America became aware and enthralled with the space race guys like Yeager were still, and are still, doing the unheralded and dangerous work of pushing the envelope. ETA: It is almost a shame that he was portrayed as kind of a "cowboy" since in reality test pilots have high professional demands; flight plans, performance expectations, and what not. Read his autobiography. He was a cowboy too. |
|
Quoted:
The Yeager parts were integral to the message of the film - to show the transistion (or dichotomy or whatever) between the unsung heroes of that age of aviation and the media circus that the space program became. Even when America became aware and enthralled with the space race guys like Yeager were still, and are still, doing the unheralded and dangerous work of pushing the envelope. ETA: It is almost a shame that he was portrayed as kind of a "cowboy" since in reality test pilots have high professional demands; flight plans, performance expectations, and what not. I agree...the Yeager part was important to the movie. |
|
My favorite scene of the movie was one of Yeager's scenes.
The one where he crashed the new fighter, trying to set a new altitude record. The "Damn! I'm glad to be alive" smile on his face as he's walking toward the emergency vehicles reminded me of a quote I once saw by him. Something to the effect of the reason he was famous wasn't because he was the best pilot. I was because he was lucky enough to survive. Summed that scene up nicely, I thought. |
|
I have the book. And as a whole the book is better than the movie. It would have best been done as a TV Mini-series.
There are a few scenes I would have cut out of the movie.  DUMB! Like Every Time the Flunky runs downs the hallway at breakneck speed to bring in some Breaking News only to be told by his Superiors, "We Know."
But one of my favorite scenes in the movie was when they had to balance a little ball in a tube in between two marks. That goes to show the competitiveness of those aviators. I sure would like to find a small clip of that scene. |
|
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tekGhkHgEE&sns=em
(hope it works, I'm linking from my "smart"phone.) |
