The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff takes an unusually generous view of people who want to do something dangerous well. Philip Kaufman’s film about test pilots and the Mercury astronauts has room for vanity, competition and the absurdity of public adoration, without making courage look foolish. We recommend it warmly, with a warning that the comedy sometimes becomes laboured. Its 193 minutes give the flying, the training and the strain on families time to matter, although Kaufman does not make every minute feel necessary.

Sam Shepard’s Chuck Yeager supplies much of the film’s authority. His restraint gives us room to appreciate the skill and self-possession without being told how impressive they are, and he makes a dangerous occupation seem like work someone intends to do properly. Ed Harris as John Glenn, Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard and Dennis Quaid as Gordon Cooper keep the astronaut ensemble from becoming a procession of solemn worthies. Still, Shepard is the actor we most want Kaufman to stay with.

Caleb Deschanel’s cinematography gives the flying a clarity that lets us appreciate the pilots’ skill. We found ourselves tensing during the flights because the footage makes the danger so credible. Geoffrey Kirkland’s production design gives the hardware a solidity that supports that response; it feels like equipment for demanding work, not a display put there for our admiration. The scale is pleasurable, and Kaufman gives us time to enjoy the flying while keeping us interested in the pilots.

Five editors share the credit: Tom Rolf, Douglas Stewart, Stephen A. Rotter, Glenn Farr and Lisa Fruchtman. Their work keeps the switches between risk, family strain and publicity intelligible, a considerable service in a film with so many people to follow. Bill Conti’s music allows itself the enthusiasm that the men often hold back, and we are happy to be carried along by it. At times the score and the spectacle press the same point too firmly; the bravery is already apparent, and it needs less musical encouragement than it gets.

The family material gives Kaufman’s screenplay something more difficult to handle than professional rivalry. Barbara Hershey as Glennis Yeager, Veronica Cartwright as Betty Grissom and Pamela Reed as Trudy Cooper make the strain of living beside this work worth our attention. Their performances resist the comfortable assumption that loving a brave man makes the consequences easy to bear. Even so, the balance remains uneven: the film is more interested in the men doing the dangerous work than in the women who have to live with it.

Kaufman adapts Tom Wolfe with an appetite for the ridiculous, particularly the publicity surrounding the astronauts. The fuss occasionally goes on after we have understood the joke, and the quieter performances begin to seem more persuasive by comparison. As a film about pioneers, The Right Stuff draws on the Western’s respect for competence and its interest in men who say little about themselves. That helps explain why Yeager is such a strong presence, though the film’s affection for him also makes the noisier passages feel a little overdone.

Set aside the full evening for this one. An interest in aircraft is optional, though a tolerance for broad comedy will help. We would make the tea before pressing play.