The Right Stuff

Plot synopsis:
In 1947, a group of determined men gathered at a remote Air Force base in the high desert of California. Their goal was to break the sound barrier by using a small rocket-powered test plane called the X-1. The only problem was that others had tried before, and not all had survived. Some thought of the sound barrier as a "demon that lived in the sky", waiting to destroy any who dared confront it.Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard), a young wartime ace with a wild reputation, volunteers to fly the X-1, and spends the night before his flight at the local bar. After a few drinks, he and his wife go galloping off on their horses through the twilight, but a tree branch catches Yeager across the chest, knocking him off the horse and cracking a few ribs. Hiding his injury from the flight crew the next morning, Yeager climbs painfully into the plane and prepares to confront the sound barrier "demon".The little X-1 is carried aloft by a large B-29 bomber, then at the right altitude, is dropped free. Yeager ignites the rocket engine and quickly zooms up into the sky, going faster and faster, closing in on the deadly Mach-1 mark. The plane begins to vibrate, then shake, with Yeager fighting the controls. Suddenly, there is a strange boom, heard by the crew waiting on the ground, and everyone fears that the sound barrier has claimed another life. A moment later, they are surprised to hear Yeager's calm voice crackle over the radio, "Make a note here would you?" This Mach-meter must be busted. It's jumped clear off the scale." Amazed, then jubilant, they realize that Yeager has done it: The sound barrier had been broken. A reporter rushes to the nearest pay phone to report the event and is stopped by an Air Force officer who tells him the nature of the mission is top secret - they don't want the news to reach the Soviet Union.The desert airbase, now called Edwards, quickly becomes the center for all test and experimental aircraft in the U.S., and every hot-shot jet-jockey looking for a chance to become famous gravitates there. A few years pass, and one such pilot, Gordo Cooper (Dennis Quaid) can't wait to take a crack at becoming "the best pilot anyone ever saw." He finds Edwards already packed with others like himself, with Yeager still at the top of the pyramid.Unforeseen events halfway around the world change everything for these test pilots. The Communists launch Sputnik, history's first orbiting satellite, and suddenly everything is focused on the race for space. Looking for the first American astronauts, representatives from the newly formed NASA visit Edwards. Cooper sees a chance to stand out from the crowd and volunteers, along with his friends Gus Grissom (Fred Ward) and Deke Slayton (Scott Paulin). Other pilots, such as Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn) from the Navy, and John Glenn (Ed Harris) a Marine flyer, also answer the call.Tested to exhaustion, the astronaut candidates are slowly weeded out, leaving a mere seven pilots as the handpicked group that will lead America into space. Basking in their glory, they are stunned to hear that the Soviets have beaten them again, launching the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space. Chagrined, they must now play catch-up with the Russians, and Alan Shepard is chosen to be the first American astronaut.Strapped into his capsule early on the morning of the launch, he waits patiently while ground control works its way through an endless series of glitches. Shepard's flight was supposed to be a short 15-minute loft into space, and he's been waiting on the pad for hours. Feeling the call of nature, Shepard is forced to "do it in the suit", much to the embarrassment of ground control. However, once he's relieved himself, he demands that they get on with it and fire the rocket. "I'm cooler than you are, so let's light this candle!" Everyone holds their breath, and the button is pushed. Shepard's rocket ignites, and quickly climbs into the sky. Subjected to tremendous stress during the launch and then the fall back to Earth, he survives the flight and is picked up by the waiting helicopter. America has its first astronaut.Gus Grissom is next and his flight goes well, but during the recovery, the hatch on his capsule is unexpectedly blown off, and when the sea floods in, Grissom nearly drowns. No one believes his claim that there was a fault in the system, and he's denied the hero's welcome afforded Shepard. The Russians make yet another bold move, placing a second man into orbit while the Americans struggle with short sub-orbital flights. Decisive action is needed, and John Glenn is chosen for the next American mission.An unreliable rocket is chosen to launch Glenn into orbit, and the country watches as the risky flight progresses. Thankfully, Glenn's capsule makes it into orbit, and everyone draws a sigh of relief. Soon however, trouble develops, and there is a serious doubt that the capsule's heat shield will protect Glenn during re-entry. Without it, he'll be incinerated. Facing the fact that there's nothing he can do but try, Glenn fires his retros and begins to fall back through the atmosphere at 18,000 miles per hour. As the heat builds up around the capsule, his radio link to the ground is blanked out, and all they can do is wait. Minutes tick by as Glenn tears through the super-heated air. Amazingly, he survives, and American can finally claim they have at last matched the Russians in the space race.Back at Edwards, events have bypassed Chuck Yeager. No one cares about high-altitude flight or Mach-speed records now; everyone is talking about spacemen. In one more record-setting attempt, Yeager takes a specially modified F-104 Starfighter up in a dangerous, high-altitude flight. Zooming through the stratosphere once more, he pushes his plane to the limit, climbing higher and higher, pushed to a record altitude by the rocket in the tail. The sky around him grows dark as he approaches the edge of space.Suddenly the engine begins to stall. The air is too thin and the jet can't keep running at this height. The plane slows as alarm lights flash on the control panel. Yeager looks out at the dark sky around him, and for a moment he can see the stars twinkling just out of reach; he is almost there. But the plane lurches, and begins to fall. There's no control, no power, no way to recover. Yeager is in a deadly flat spin. Spiraling down faster and faster, Yeager struggles to get his craft under control, but as he nears the ground, he must either eject or crash. Pulling the ejection control, his seat is fired out of the doomed plane, but the small rocket in the ejection seat has ignited his flight suit, and he plummets through the clouds, trailing smoke as the flames burn up into his helmet.On the ground, the crash truck lumbers out over the flat desert toward the crashed plane. The recovery crew fully expects to find Yeager's smashed body in the wreckage, but something off in the distance catches their eye, and they turn toward it. As they draw closer, the shape becomes Yeager, his face badly burned, calmly walking towards them. He has survived once again.Intercut with Yeager's flight are scenes of the Mercury astronauts attending a huge Texas banquet thrown by Lyndon B. Johnson. The men watch a performance by fan dancer Sally Rand, and look at each other, knowing they're heroes to all Americans. Gordo Cooper remarks that he's achieved success as an astronaut having a good home, money, and a fine meal, and that he hasn't even been on a space mission yet. When asked who the greatest pilot he ever knew was, Gordo hesitates for a time, perhaps wanting to mention Chuck Yeager, and instead answers "You're lookin' at him."As the last of the Mercury-7 astronauts prepares for his flight into space, the ground controllers hear snoring over the microphone in the capsule. Gordo Cooper is finally getting his chance to prove he has "the right stuff", but first they have to wake him up. Laughing, they continue the countdown, and Cooper rides the rocket into space, setting records for the longest space flight to date, and proving, if only for a short time, that he is "the greatest pilot anyone ever saw." The narrator tells us that Cooper was the last astronaut to go into space alone.

Tags: dramatic, historical

Review:
'The Right Stuff' is one of the most glorious adventure films ever made, a story of incredible heroism, poignant romance, gripping drama, and broad humor...and amazingly, it has actually happened within our lifetimes!This is a tale of test pilots, 'pushing the envelope', proving the sound barrier couldn't constrain mankind's reach for space.
His record-breaking flight could fill a movie by itself...and this is just the BEGINNING of the story!Jumping ahead a few years, Yeager is joined by a new breed of test pilots, whose total love of flight challenges their relationships, and is the true measure of how they define themselves.
Yeager is out (he never completed college), but Cooper and Grissom, and many others, compete for spots in the New Frontier.These pilots, from all services, are weeded down to seven men, dubbed 'Astronauts', and the Mercury Space Program is born!
Working under the glare of the world press, the seven gradually come to respect one another, and embark on an epic adventure, full of triumph and tragedy!Meanwhile, Chuck Yeager, snubbed by NASA, continues to test new generations of jets, pushing the 'envelope', until, in a climactic scene, he achieves the threshold of space, himself.
The flight is a near disaster, resulting in a horrendous crash, but the image of the burned but undefeated pilot, walking proudly away from the wreckage, is an unforgettable image of courage, and truly defines 'The Right Stuff'!This is a REMARKABLE film in every way, and is director Philip Kaufman's masterpiece.
Lushly scored by Tom Conti (who won an Oscar for the Tchaikovsky-inspired music), the film soars, both on earth and in space!If you believe the Age of Heroes is past, watch 'The Right Stuff', and you might change your mind!
The Right Stuff is terrific: exciting, complex, funny, crammed with memorable scenes, unforgettable lines, and wonderful actors (many of whom went on to become big stars).A classic shot shows a test pilot on horseback coming over a ridge stopping to look at a new rocket-plane, steadying his nervous horse as it edges past the flames coming out the back.
The all-star cast includes Sam Shepard (as Chuck Yeager in an Oscar-nominated role of a lifetime), Ed Harris (John Glenn), Scott Glenn (Alan Shepard), Fred Ward (Gus Grissom), Lance Henriksen (Walter Schirra), Dennis Quaid (Gordon Cooper), and Donald Moffat (Lyndon Baines Johnson).
I also enjoyed Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard and Barbara Hershey as Yeager's wife.Yeager's feats were perhaps the most interesting and they set a fast tone to this 3-hour film as we witness him breaking several sound-barrier records prior to the formation of the astronaut team.
I always loved anything connected to science fact and science fiction and this movie is no exception.I already owned the Laserdisc version of it, but the DVD is even better.I love this movie, but I must consider the interest of the public and I honestly cannot say that this is one for the vast public.The theme alone is a difficult one and deals with the history of the Space Age, as it began from an American perspective, and by telling the story of the astronauts involved in the Mercury project.Being very long, it might not fit the modern view of a quick-fix movie.
The other real life people that this movie follows are Alan Shepard(Scott Glenn), Gordon Cooper(Dennis Quaid), John Glenn(Ed Harris), Gus Grissom(Fred Ward), and of course, their families.The running time is very long at 3 hours plus, but it goes by very quickly.
`The Right Stuff' is the story of the original Mercury 7 astronauts and their journey through the fledgling NASA program and eventually into space.
One thing I particularly enjoyed about the film was the introduction of Chuck Yeager (Shepard) and his contribution to history by breaking the sound barrier, and then the periodic simultaneous comparison of the accomplishments of the astronauts and the Air Force and civilian test pilots, as well as exhibiting their eventual mutual respect.If I had to point out any kind of glaring fault, it would have to be that they focused on some astronauts more than others  obviously concentrating heavily on the bigger names, and glossing over the `lesser-known' ones.
The scene where Harry Shearer and Jeff Goldblum, playing two NASA flunkies, are bad-mouthing Yeager because he has no college degree, all while the real Yeager, playing the bartender, is standing in back of them listening in, is precious.While the plot and action centers on Yeager and the original seven Mercury astronauts, two actresses are worth watching: Veronica Cartwright does her usual great job as Betty Grissom ("I want to have lunch with Jackie!!") and the ever-versatile and talented Pamela Reed as Gordon Cooper's long-suffering wife, Trudy, who has some of the best lines in the movie (referring to the macho Edwards test pilots, "But they sure are handy assholes.").A bit of tragic trivia: Jane Dornacker, the talented actress, comedienne and musician who "uglied up" to play Nurse Murch in the hilarious "sperm count scene", later a traffic reporter in New York City for WNBC radio, was killed when her helicopter lost its tail rotor, narrowly missed a pier and crashed into the Hudson River.
The space began when Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard who played legendary pilot , is actually afraid of flying) broke the sound barrier and scorching Mach 2 and following to other aviation pioneers , the Mercury mission with 7 astronauts , the suicide squadron who volunteer for astronaut training is formed by a motley cast (Fred Ward , Dennis Quaid , Lance Henriksen , Ed Harris , Scott Glenn and Scott Paulin) , showing that no one had a clue how to run a space program or how to select volunteers to be in it.
William Goldman, the original screenwriter before he left the project also disliked it because he didn't like the way Philip Kaufman portrayed Chuck Yeager as the only hero in the film, while the rest of the astronauts only got lucky and didn't match up to him in any way.
Based on true events from Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier to the 7 Mercury astronauts, the film assembled an excellent cast including Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Barbara Hershey, Veronica Cartwright, etc., to pay tribute to those who paved the way for America to be at the "top of the pyramid".It is a long movie, but never a dull moment.
Though quite a bit of artistic licensing is carried out(so I am told), the movie showed events that were very true, such as Yeager breaking his ribs before his supersonic flight, and his friend fixing him a door handle by cutting off a section of a broom stick handle; the rigorous training the astronauts go through; Russians taking the lead going into space, Allan Shepard's "prayer" before liftoff; Pancho's restaurant burning down; John Glenn's risky re-entry, etc.The movie doesn't just portray space flight.
It starts with test pilot Chuck Yeager(Sam Shepard)and some of his accomplishments; and then right on through the trials and tribulations of picking the original seven Mercury astronauts and the final Mercury mission.Great NASA footage integrated into this meaty Philip Kaufman epic.
Tom Conti's winning and inspirational score ties this historical epic together, which deservedly won an Academy Award for best original score.The running time is slightly over 3 hours, but is never boring and seems most appropriate in retrospect to tell this epic story.The fact that Terms of Endearment won best picture over The Right Stuff at the 1983 Oscars is a travesty.
And more impressively considering its ensemble there's almost a key character to the mix with Chuck Yeagher, the first man to break the sound barrier who never got into NASA with all the other go-for-broke test pilots, but did taste that rush up to the sky just once - and what a rush.This is film-making of a superlative caliber.
The Right Stuff is a very human story, told with an approximate awe for the subject matter and an attitude that says "we can be epic, but we can also point out the flaws that come around in human nature." There were so many obstacles that could have come, and sometimes did, for the folks at NASA, the scientists as well as the handful that were picked to do missions up into space in direct competition with America's foe the Russians, that all the astronauts could sometimes do would be to joke or give a hard-lined measure.
The veneer of pure heroism is shown for what it is, as something of not always a tricky thing; the film was criticized by some of the original astronauts for the depiction of Gus Grissom (if only because Grissom had passed on in tragedy and couldn't do it himself), but his story of going into space, and the aftermath with his wife, is important to show for the story the film's trying to tell.That's one of the remarkable things in the Right Stuff, which is giving as much equal time and depth as possible to these guys, and their wives at other times.
The acting by such a great cast, especially Fred Ward, Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Harry Shearer, etc., keeps the movie from sinking like a swamped space capsule in the ocean.
Over an epic three hours, 'The Right Stuff (1983)' charts the United States' experiments with rocket-powered aircraft, and the attempts to break the sound barrier, and, more substantially, Project Mercury, which first placed America astronauts into space as an entire nation watched.
Goldman had originally wished to excise test-pilot Chuck Yeager, on which Wolfe spends considerable time, from the film adaptation, but Kaufman knowingly recognised that Yeager's involvement solidified the story's primary theme  that "the right stuff" wasn't merely restricted to the highly-paid astronauts idolised by the media, but also included the humble high-achievers who regularly risked their lives for the thrill of the flight.It's obvious that Kaufman believed the film's true hero to be Chuck Yeager, as well as the dozens of anonymous test pilots whose photographs once lined the wall at the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
Yeager's history-making 1947 flight, in which he successfully broke the sound-barrier in level flight, was treated with the utmost military secrecy, and yet, later in the film, each astronaut's return to earth is greeted by a chorus of public celebration {here, Kaufman cleverly toys with archival footage, seemingly placing his actors alongside US Presidents, in a technique predating Robert Zemeckis' 'Forrest Gump (1994)'}.
Of course, the astronauts themselves were still a courageous bunch, and Yeager admiringly muses that "it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially one that's on TV."'The Right Stuff' is a massively-entertaining piece of film-making, supplemented by its marvellous realism and a subtle element of political satire.
The film's major players, a veritable melting-pot of future stars, all deliver exceptional performances, particularly Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Sam Shepard and Dennis Quaid, though considerably uneven attention is given to certain Mercury 7 astronauts over others  did Lance Henriksen, as Wally Schirra, even have any lines?
When watching Apollo 13, which also stars Ed Harris, there was a real continuity in the movie that made the two movies complement each other nicely.The Right Stuff also was a great vehicle for actors like Ed Harris, Fred Ward, Scott Glen,Sam Shepard and Dennis Quaid who have all gone on to do amazing work.
Almost nothing is taken seriously by Kaufman in this space race story, but you are so drawn in, for example, to the myth of Chuck Yeager, played with laconic stoicism by the perfectly-cast Sam Shepard, that you genuinely grieve for him when he is rejected by NASA.
Within ten years, he was virtually forgotten, replaced by "America's Mercury Astronauts" (the Mercury Seven), the first seven Americans to enter outer space.John Glenn (Ed Harris is perfectly cast) was a moral, conservative man who insisted the Mercury Seven were role models and should act like them.
Gordon "Hot Dog" Cooper (Dennis Quaid), a cowboy who called himself "the best pilot he ever saw," knew he was in the company of greatness with the others.The movie also examines the stress the Eisenhower administration was under to beat the Soviets into space, adding archival footage of Yuri Gagarin's first trip into space.At 3 hours and 13 minutes, "The Right Stuff" is a long movie, but the pace is quick enough to keep most people interested, and the story is told with humor and heart.Rating note: despite the PG rating, the F-word is used more than once.
I expected a lot from this film; a good ensemble cast (albeit with no major stars) telling the story of the early space race, an area of history in which I've always been interested.
Then, NASA starts hunting for potential astronauts - 'spam in a can', as the job is ironically described.From this point on, the film concentrates on Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn), Gordie Cooper (Dennis Quaid) and John Glenn (Ed Harris), with Gus Grissom (Fred Ward) getting a look-in.
"Who is the greatest pilot you ever saw Mr. Cooper," asks a wormy reporter in the best film of 1983, "The Right Stuff." Mr. Cooper(Dennis Quaid) goes on to describe a place in the high desert of California named Edwards Air Force Base, where he once saw one man live up to that title.
about as boring as it's possible to be......I think John Glenn's actual space flight didn't last as long as it was dragged out for in this overrated, tepid ,sleep inducing spectacle......the astronauts may have had the right stuff........but this movie was stuffed full of something else......
The Right Stuff, adapted from Tom Wolfe's best-selling account of the test-pilots in the Mercury Space Program, shows what it takes to be a man; to have the 'right stuff' inhabited by these fearless men, who were the only ones crazy enough to risk everything, on live TV, to beat the Russians in the space race.Besides the many fascinating and frequently hilarious vignettes involving the test pilots - played by a stellar cast of Dennis Quaid, Ed Harris, Fred Ward, Charles Frank, Lance Henriksen, Scott Glenn and Scott Paulin - the movie's real ace-in-the-hole is the juxtaposition of this story with that of Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard), a man thought of by his peers to be the finest pilot in the world.
October 14, 1947.Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager flies the experimental X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet (13,700 m) becoming the first pilot (at 24) to travel faster than sound.And this great man flew with two broken ribs, since he fell off a horse two nights before the flight.In 1953 he breaks another record.After that men start looking higher up.Space should be conquered next.In 1957 we hear news from the Soviet Union.That year happens the launch of the Sputnik satellite.The Space Race against USSR begins.A group of men are gathered to form the Mercury 7 program.Those brave seven men are Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.The Right Stuff (1983) is directed by the great director Philip Kaufman.It's based on the 1979 book by Tom Wolfe.Sam Shepard is great portraying Chuck Yeager.Yeager himself is seen in the movie as Fred, the bartender at Pancho's.Barbara Hershey is also great playing his wife Glennis Yeager.Scott Glenn is very good playing Alan Shepard.And so is Kathy Baker as Louise Shepard.Ed Harris does a terrific job portraying the great astronaut John Glenn.On October 29, 1998, Glenn (b.1921) actually lifted off for a second space flight, thus becoming the oldest person ever to go into space.The astronaut Gordon Cooper is played by the brilliant Dennis Quaid.The part of Gus Grissom is played by Fred Ward.Lance Henriksen portrays Wally Schirra.Rock musician (drummer for The Band) Levon Helm is Jack Ridley/Narrator.Donald Moffat plays the president Lyndon B.
Sam Sheppard's portrayal of him in this film may have been exaggerated a bit, but he still was head and shoulders above the rest.Just like Yeager, the Mercury Seven also had "The Right Stuff." They went up every time not knowing whether or not they would be blown up and not come home - some didn't.
The bridging character between the early jet and rocket plane test pilots and the original Mercury 7 astronauts is Chuck Yeager, ex-combat fighter ace, first man to break the sound barrier, and also to exceed Mach 2.
Punching A Hole In The Sky. Like the U.S. space program it dramatizes, "The Right Stuff" is a film of audacious overreach that succeeds precisely because it pays no mind to earthbound limitations, namely that making a three-hour-plus long movie with no central character, romance, or conflict is a bad idea.Yes, there is the overarching theme of a space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
I still think of Alan Shepard up in his space capsule whenever I am struggling with my bladder, and there's a scene just as wry or as powerful every few minutes for those who pay attention just a little.Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel has shot more memorable frames in movies like "Being There" and "Passion Of The Christ," but "The Right Stuff" presents probably his finest cinematic showcase, boring in on a hundred moments big and small.
After this, Yeager takes a back seat, and the rest of the film is given over to the seven men with 'the right stuff' - among them Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid and Fred Ward - and the race to get them into space before the Russians manage it with one of theirs.The Right Stuff is a strange beast, a really curious experience.
Splendidly acted by a great cast Dennis Quaid , Sam Shepard et al, this movie brilliantly tells the story of the USA astronaut program.