This story broadly painted deals with the beginnings of the US space career and the first seven Mercury astronauts , being based on Tom Wolf's nonfiction novel . 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. It was after the Soviets successfully launched the Sputnik satellite in 1959, that the U.S. redoubled its efforts to surpass at their trail of glory in the sky .
Electrifying film with credible interpretations but overlong and oddly uninvolving , based on Tom Wolfe's ambitious book about the history of the U.S. Space program , it reads like a novel . However , Tom Wolfe, was unhappy with the film because he felt it made too many changes to the book. 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. The film has that same fictional quality ; furthermore is thrilling , imaginative , rowdy and overlong -at more than three hours , including unnecessary material - all at once . The picture attempts hardly to tell the tale of human beings as well as the space conquest . The movie tries to narrate parallel stories , though it never quite successfully integrate them . It covers the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager -Sam Shepard- as a test pilot of the old breed , giving a nice and charming performance . It provides an all-star-cast who bolster a fine movie with special mention to Ed Harris playing John Glen who subsequently was running for President . The main cast is perfectly completed by known secondaries as Barbara Hershey , Pamela Reed , Veronica Cartwright , Kathy Baker , David Clennon , Scott Wilson , Jeff Goldblum , Royal Dano , Donald Moffat among others . Special effects work and production design by Geoffrey Kirkland is spectacular and could hardly be bettered ; however , some moments relies heavily from stock-shots . Colorful and atmospheric cinematography by Caleb Deschanel , the role of Annie Glenn was the first film role for his wife , Mary Jo Deschanel . Imaginative and evocative musical score composed and conducted by Bill Conti . The film's music temp track consisted of music from Holst's The Planets, Henry Mancini's score for The White Dawn and various other classical pieces which were favorites of Director 'Philip Kaufman'.
¨Right stuff¨ results to be Philip Kaufman's one of the most successful films . He's a good filmmaker and little prolific who left some great moments in histories that not be forgotten , giving enough inspired images to make linger in the memory such as happens in ¨Right stuff¨ . Kaufman realized a Western ¨Great Northfield Minnessota Raid¨, a youthful tale as ¨The Wanderers¨, Sci-Fi ¨ as ¨Invasion body snatchers¨and two sexual stories ¨Unbearable lightness of being¨ and ¨Henry and June¨.
Electrifying film with credible interpretations but overlong and oddly uninvolving , based on Tom Wolfe's ambitious book about the history of the U.S. Space program , it reads like a novel . However , Tom Wolfe, was unhappy with the film because he felt it made too many changes to the book. 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. The film has that same fictional quality ; furthermore is thrilling , imaginative , rowdy and overlong -at more than three hours , including unnecessary material - all at once . The picture attempts hardly to tell the tale of human beings as well as the space conquest . The movie tries to narrate parallel stories , though it never quite successfully integrate them . It covers the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager -Sam Shepard- as a test pilot of the old breed , giving a nice and charming performance . It provides an all-star-cast who bolster a fine movie with special mention to Ed Harris playing John Glen who subsequently was running for President . The main cast is perfectly completed by known secondaries as Barbara Hershey , Pamela Reed , Veronica Cartwright , Kathy Baker , David Clennon , Scott Wilson , Jeff Goldblum , Royal Dano , Donald Moffat among others . Special effects work and production design by Geoffrey Kirkland is spectacular and could hardly be bettered ; however , some moments relies heavily from stock-shots . Colorful and atmospheric cinematography by Caleb Deschanel , the role of Annie Glenn was the first film role for his wife , Mary Jo Deschanel . Imaginative and evocative musical score composed and conducted by Bill Conti . The film's music temp track consisted of music from Holst's The Planets, Henry Mancini's score for The White Dawn and various other classical pieces which were favorites of Director 'Philip Kaufman'.
¨Right stuff¨ results to be Philip Kaufman's one of the most successful films . He's a good filmmaker and little prolific who left some great moments in histories that not be forgotten , giving enough inspired images to make linger in the memory such as happens in ¨Right stuff¨ . Kaufman realized a Western ¨Great Northfield Minnessota Raid¨, a youthful tale as ¨The Wanderers¨, Sci-Fi ¨ as ¨Invasion body snatchers¨and two sexual stories ¨Unbearable lightness of being¨ and ¨Henry and June¨.