This is a great film and I still can't understand why it bombed at the box office. I saw it during its theatrical run and was blown away by the enveloping sound. It went on to win Oscars for sound and sound editing, deservedly so.
This is a great film and still can't understand why it bombed at the box office. I saw it during its theatrical run and was blown away by the enveloping sound. It went on to win Oscars for sound and sound editing, deservedly so.
The general public just isn't into the space program. Especially at that time. The fever had died way down after the Apollo missions. So it was a hard sell to begin with. But I thought the generous amount of patriotism and comedy would win theater goers over. But apparently that didn't happen. I remember Siskel and Ebert saying, "We told everyone, go see this, and everyone stayed away!"
I've only ever seen the film once and that was when it was released in the cinema. I can't remember that much about it. I didn't dislike it, but I've never been bothered to watch it again either.
Back to the film, I think it left a few people a bit confused at times.
The first 30 minutes or so revolve around a cowboy and his girl riding horses and drinking in a dusty old bar. I was one of those confused. I thought this was about the space program?!
Then we have the scene were Yeager finds the X1 in the middle of the dessert with it's engines burning, and seemingly no one else around. It was so surreal. Was this really happening or a dream sequence? (No, it was real.)
Then you have the sequence in Australia where the campfire flames fly up into the night sky and suddenly we cut to John Glenn seeing "firefly's" dancing around his ship. Pretty surreal again!
Later on we have a long naked dance sequence near the end of the film that really drags on. I remember my sister-in-law leaning over and asking me, "What does this have to do with spaceships?" LOL
Not sure all these narratives worked.
The film is about the kind of men those pilots and astronauts were more than it is about the space program. Did you notice how Scott Crossfield and Chuck Yeager were "quietly" accomplishing great things but not receiving or necessarily wanting the fame the astronauts got? In fact, the astronauts are sort of looked down upon albeit in an affectionate way by the jet pilots.
In fact, the astronauts are sort of looked down upon albeit in an affectionate way by the jet pilots.
Yep. "SPAM in a can." I loved that line.
Sure but Yeager said in the film something to the effect, a monkey doesn't know it's being strapped to a giant bomb, and it took great courage to be an astronaut.
THE RIGHT STUFF is still my second favorite film of all time! The first time I bought it was on laserdisc from Suncoast Motion Picture Company, remember them, back in 1996. Fantastic film!
THE RIGHT STUFF is still my second favorite film of all time! The first time I bought it was on laserdisc from Suncoast Motion Picture Company, remember them, back in 1996. Fantastic film!
It's definitely my favorite American movie of the 1980s.
