CINEMATIC Review

THE RIGHT STUFF   ****

Philip Kaufman

1983

IDEA:   A chronicle charting the beginnings of the US space program and the adventures of the original Mercury 7 astronauts.

BLURB:   Over three hours and not a single wasted second in this sensational paean to the birth of America’s space program, which serves as the foundation to a story about the very human, very troubled people who made it all happen. With a perfectly calibrated balance of historical drama and distinguished character piece, not to mention excellent satire, Kaufman directs with a homegrown naturalness that places the film’s proudly American emblem comfortably on its sleeve. The cast couldn’t have been any better; Ed Harris, wry and poignant; Dennis Quaid, the story’s blithely humorous center; Sam Shepard, all steely internalized machismo; Scott Glenn; finding himself in need of a bathroom at the worst possible time. It all comes together in a sweepingly majestic time capsule of a turbulent, imperfect, but most importantly revolutionary time, when the lone cowboy mode of the past evolved into team ideology and collective workmanship, a new spirit of adventure that would fuel our headlong, uncertain journey into the future.