The Right Stuff (1983)

The original US Mercury 7 astronauts and their macho, seat-of-the-pants approach to the space program.

Director:

Philip Kaufman

Writers:

Tom Wolfe (book), Philip Kaufman (screenplay)

Stars:

Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris

Won 4 Oscars. Another 10 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sam Shepard	...	Chuck Yeager
Scott Glenn	...	Alan Shepard
Ed Harris	...	John Glenn
Dennis Quaid	...	Gordon Cooper
Fred Ward	...	Gus Grissom
Barbara Hershey	...	Glennis Yeager
Kim Stanley	...	Pancho Barnes
Veronica Cartwright	...	Betty Grissom
Pamela Reed	...	Trudy Cooper
Scott Paulin	...	Deke Slayton
Charles Frank	...	Scott Carpenter
Lance Henriksen	...	Wally Schirra
Donald Moffat	...	Lyndon B. Johnson
Levon Helm	...	Jack Ridley / Narrator
Mary Jo Deschanel	...	Annie Glenn

Storyline

Tom Wolfe's book on the history of the U.S. Space program reads like a novel, and the film has that same fictional quality. It covers the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager to the Mercury 7 astronauts, showing that no one had a clue how to run a space program or how to select people to be in it. Thrilling, funny, charming and electrifying all at once.

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Plot Keywords:

astronaut | space program | fire | u.s. space program | rocket | 

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Taglines:

How the future began.

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | History | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

21 October 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Stoff aus dem die Helden sind

Filming Locations:

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field - U.S. Route 101, Mountain View, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$27,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$21,500,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ladd Company, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

193 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the weekend of 4 April 1999, Gus Grissom's lost Liberty Bell 7 capsule was located and recovered on the ocean floor 90 miles northeast of the Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas. It underwent a restoration and went on a national tour before being placed in a permanent exhibit. The hatch, which many thought would have proved or disproved Grissom's contention that it blew open on its own, has not been recovered.

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Goofs

The stock footage of Grissom's capsule landing was of a Gemini, not Mercury, spacecraft.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it the sound barrier.

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Connections

Referenced in American Porn Star (2004)

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Soundtracks

"The Wayward Wind"
by Herb Newman and Stanley Lebowsky
Performed by Gogi Grant
Courtesy of K-Tel Entertainment, Inc.

User Reviews

A movie that is as straight forward as the story it tells

`The Right Stuff' is the story of the original Mercury 7 astronauts and their journey through the fledgling NASA program and eventually into space. It is well-written and well-acted, featuring a veritable `Who's Who' of then slightly unknown actors such as Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn and Lance Henriksen. While it had an over three hour running time, and I actually had to get up to turn over the DVD because of its length, the pacing was such that I never once considered that any particular scene should have been shortened. 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. An example would be Walter Schirra (Henriksen) – his name is mentioned a couple of times, and he probably had a tenth of the screen time of the others. Plainly, with an already three hour running time not everyone could have equal time, so this is certainly a mild criticism. `The Right Stuff' isn't profound or exceptional, but it is certainly a good and interesting film.

--Shelly