As the Space Race ensues, seven pilots set off on a path to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings forth momentous challenges.
Sam Shepard
Chuck Yeager
Scott Glenn
Alan Shepard
Ed Harris
John Glenn
Dennis Quaid
Gordon Cooper
Fred Ward
Gus Grissom
Barbara Hershey
Glennis Yeager
Kim Stanley
Pancho Barnes
Veronica Cartwright
Betty Grissom
Pamela Reed
Trudy Cooper
Scott Paulin
Deke Slayton
Charles Frank
Scott Carpenter
Lance Henriksen
Wally Schirra
Donald Moffat
Lyndon B. Johnson
Levon Helm
Jack Ridley / Narrator
Mary Jo Deschanel
Annie Glenn
Scott Wilson
Scott Crossfield
Kathy Baker
Louise Shepard
Mickey Crocker
Marge Slayton
Susan Kase
Rene Carpenter
Mittie Smith
Jo Schirra
Royal Dano
Minister
David Clennon
Liaison Man
Jim Haynie
Air Force Major
Jeff Goldblum
NASA Recruiter
Harry Shearer
NASA Recruiter
Scott Beach
Chief Scientist
Jane Dornacker
Nurse Murch
Anthony Munoz
Gonzales
John P. Ryan
Head of Program
Darryl Henriques
Life Reporter
Eric Sevareid
Himself
William Russ
Slick Goodlin
Drew Letchworth
The Permanent Press Corps
Christopher P. Beale
The Permanent Press Corps
Richard Dupell
The Permanent Press Corps
William Hall
The Permanent Press Corps
John X. Heart
The Permanent Press Corps
Ed Holmes
The Permanent Press Corps
Jack Bruno Tate
The Permanent Press Corps
Edward Anhalt
Grand Designer
Mary Apick
Woman Reporter
Robert Beer
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Erik Bergmann
Eddie Hodges
James Brady
Aide to Lyndon B. Johnson
Katherine Conklin
Woman TV Reporter
Maureen Coyne
Waitress
Tom Dahlgren
Bell Aircraft Executive
John Lion
Bell Aircraft Executive
Peggy Davis
Sally Rand
John Dehner
Henry Luce
Robert Elross
Review Board President
Drew Eshelman
Assistant Scientist
Robert J. Geary
Game Show M.C.
Royce Grones
1st X-1 Pilot
David Gulpilil
Aborigine
Anthony Wallis
Australian Driver
Kaaren Lee
Young Widow
Sandy Kronemeyer
Cocoa Beach Girl
Frankie Di
Cocoa Beach Girl
Michael Pritchard
Texan
Ed Corbett
Texan
O-Lan Jones
Girl at Pancho's
Mark Todd
Astronaut Trainee
Allen Gebhardt
Astronaut Trainee
Chuck Yeager
Fred
Mimi Sarkisian
New Mexico Nurse in Lobby (uncredited)
Director, Screenplay
Philip Kaufman
Novel
Tom Wolfe
July 20, 2023
8
**Overall, it's a good movie about the start of the space race.**
The space race was one of the aspects that marked the intense rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. There was the notion that space could be a battleground or a zone of influence, as colonial territories had been decades before, and that the nuclear threat made it urgent to dominate space. That's why the Mercury Program was born, responsible for the first suborbital and orbital flights carried out by the USA.
Directed by Philip Kaufman, the film is very good and very well made, even if, at times, it resembles an expensive advertisement for NASA and what was done by the North Americans in the space race. It is a long film, with three hours, but that is justified by covering a large period of time and giving us a very global view of the Mercury missions. This leads me to another problem: you need to have a minimal knowledge of the program and who was part of it to be able to understand everything the film shows, because there are not many explanations and the film presumes that the audience knows what they are watching.
The cast is, perhaps, one of the most important aspects of the film, since it is largely based on the development of the characters and on the way each actor worked and developed his character. And there is no doubt that we have a wide range of talented artists here where Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, Ed Harris and Dennis Quaid dominate the canvas and capture our full attention. There's no way to single out just one or two, I think each of them did the best they could with what they had at hand, and director Kaufman got the best out of them all.
It's a very light film, not a dense drama full of technical aspects or complicated ideas. The film even manages to give us an idea of the political and financial management of the project, and the use that American politicians were making of it for electoral purposes. There's some room for humor, but it's not a movie that makes us laugh out loud. The most comical situation for me was the way in which an American vice president was stopped at the door of an astronaut's house by his wife. The dialogues are good, they are well written, and the visual and special effects used are convincing. This film also has good cinematography and a very atmospheric soundtrack.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$27,000,000.00
Revenue:
$21,500,000.00