Genre Grandeur – The Right Stuff (1983)

Date: Author: Category: 1980's, 1983, Academy Award Best Picture Nominee, Adventure, Based on A True Story, Drama, Genre Grandeur, Oscar worthy, Sci-Fi

For my 4th entry in this month’s Genre Grandeur – Space, here’s my review of The Right Stuff (1983)

Right_Stuff_The_quad_movie_poster_l“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. ” – Narrator

Number of Times Seen – No clue, but at least ten times (Cable in the 80’s, 29 Sep 2014)

Brief Synopsis – The story of the history of the early years of the American Space program and how they eventually got men into space.

My Take on it – This was the movie that started it all for me and got me interested in NASA’S missions to space.

As a kid, I saw this movie countless times on cable and despite its 3-plus hour running time I never was bored.

The cast is filled with up and comers who are now household names.

Jeff Goldblum, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Kathy Baker, Lance Hendrickson, Sam Shepard, Fred Ward and Dennis Quaid are just some if this large cast.

This movie is based on Tom Wolfe’s bestselling novel and shows that the race for good press is equally important to beating the Russians to space.

Even with its 190 minute running time, this movie feels incompleye and totally glosses over important historical facts including the additional Mercury missions and the outcome of Gus’ mishap.

Regardless, this was an excellent movie made with a lots of love and the audience can feel it throughout.

Bottom Line – Excellent Epic tale of the space race that relied on the equally important public relations race. Still shorter than it should have been even with a 3 plus hour running time. Amazing cast that features some soon to be popular actors in pivotal roles. Highly recommended!

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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