Philip Kaufman is a gifted literary adaptor who lets humour and human vanity into serious stories. We value his patience with people, particularly in The Right Stuff, though his broader comedy can become laboured.
Fi1m perspective
In The Right Stuff (1983), Sam Shepard's Chuck Yeager makes dangerous flying look like work he intends to do properly. Kaufman gives that restraint time to work, without insisting that we admire the man every minute. He notices the vanity of the Mercury astronauts and still takes their courage seriously. This is the Kaufman we recommend most warmly: interested in people who can do something difficult, and willing to watch them do it.
He had moved from independent features in the mid-1960s to the ensemble paranoia of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). He co-wrote the story of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) with George Lucas, contributing the Ark as the object of the pursuit. Steven Spielberg directed that adventure. Kaufman's own The Right Stuff, adapted from Tom Wolfe, finds as much to watch in training and professional rivalry as in flying.
Caleb Deschanel photographs the flying clearly enough for us to appreciate the pilots' skill. We tensed during the flights because the danger felt credible. Geoffrey Kirkland's production design helps: the hardware looks built for demanding work, rather than arranged for inspection. Kaufman lets us enjoy these things without losing interest in the men using them.
His patience has a cost, and not every one of the film's 193 minutes earns its place. The satire sometimes presses a joke after it has made its point. Barbara Hershey's Glennis Yeager, Veronica Cartwright's Betty Grissom and Pamela Reed's Trudy Cooper make the strain on the families matter. Yet Kaufman's screenplay remains more interested in the men taking risks than in the women living with the consequences. The performances make that imbalance harder to excuse.
His later work turned increasingly towards literary adaptation, from Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) to Quills (2000). His films mix drama, comedy and erotic material, asking us to adjust as the tone changes. Start with The Right Stuff, allowing for a director who sometimes enjoys a joke longer than we do.
Biography
Philip Kaufman is an American film director and screenwriter. Born on 23 October 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, he attended the University of Chicago and briefly Harvard Law School before making his first feature, Goldstein (1965).
Kaufman directed and wrote the screenplay for The Right Stuff (1983), an adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s book about the early US space programme that received eight Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture. He also wrote the story for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) with George Lucas.
His other directing credits include Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Henry & June (1990) and Quills (2000). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
