In the late 70's Tom Wolfe (yes that Tom Wolfe) became interested in test pilot culture. He started interviewing and writing and came up with 'The Right Stuff'. It started as featuring test pilots and bleed into the Mercury astronaut program. The 'Right Stuff' by the way refers to an almost indefinable combination of courage, instinct and smarts that separates good pilots, great pilots and extraordinary ones.
The movie version follows the general plan of the book. It begins with Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier. With broken ribs no less. It continues by introducing several of the Mercury astronauts. The tests that they used to select them are particularly interesting. They focused on the psychological things rather than the physical ones. Really they weren't looking for pilots, they were looking for people that would sit there and not mess things up.
The movie continues through the failures of the initial tests and finally successful space shots. It details Grissom losing his capsule. And moves on to the real star of the program, John Glenn. Glenn's attitude and personality made him into a celebrity.
The close of the movie intermixes the introduction of the astronaut program to Houston with a memorable test flight of Yeager's. The Houston show featured lots of barbecue and a fan dance from Sally Rand (nearly 60). It's hard to imagine any large public gathering featuring a sitting Vice President using nude dancing as entertainment.
I want to love this movie. Being something of a space nut and all. But the story is sprawling and not well tied together. Different elements aren't really fleshed out or explained in enough detail to be understood. It's a good movie but it pales in comparison to more focused films like Apollo 13.
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