The Right Stuff - Review by dpc1973
The skies no limit

// The skinny: The story about America's fledgling space program in the 1950's and its race against Russia for the New Frontier. More than that, it's the story about the Mercury astronauts...their trials, defeats, and victories.

// Review: "Based on the novel by Tom Wolfe" is not exactly a ringing endorsement for a movie (for any of you unfortunate enough to have watched Bonfire of the Vanities, you know what I mean), but don't let that deter you. I loved this movie. To me, it contains everything that I love about movies in general and why I watch them. Themes of heroism and bravery, solid acting, and a stinkin' good story to tell. The casting was terrific. This movie contains quite a few famous actors, most of which were no-namers at the time...Dennis Quaid (Gordon Cooper), Scott Glenn (Alan Shepard), Fred Ward (Gus Grissom), Ed Harris (John Glenn), and especially Sam Shepard (Chuck Yeager) do a fantastic job of capturing the bravado, half-crazy (at least according to some, for at that time, astronauts were called upon to do things - like go to outer space -(that Nasa wouldn't even put monkeys to), can-do attitude that exemplified test pilots and astronauts of that era. Not to take anything away from the profile of today's astronauts, but these guys were not 40-something scientists and engineers, qualifed to their position because of PhD's in whatever. They were young pilots who laid everything on the line to do what had never been done before.

/ Not one normally prone to blind, blatant patriotism, I nevertheless found myself brimming with pride at being an American. The movie tells a story about a country, represented by a few brave men, which saw an undiscovered, unexplored frontier and said, "let's go there". That is the spirit that made America great and it is in full bloom in this movie. I also loved the soundtrack, composed by Bill Conti (who won an Oscar for this work). The music itself was inspirational and fit in quite nicely with some of the themes I've already mentioned.

// Wrap up: Like a Starbucks Doubleshot Espresso of bravery and heroism, over the dramatic background of a Cold War race against the Soviets. Watch it, both for the history as well as the exhilirating cinematic ride.

Entertainment rating: 4