THE MOVIE

The Right Stuff is based upon Tom Wolfe's non-fictious novel which covers the period from the time that man first broke the sound barrier in 1947 until 1963 when Gordo Cooper (played by Dennis Quaid)  launches into a 22 day orbit. The movie looks at the early days of the American space program and the space race between the Americans and Russians for who will be the first nation to put a man on the moon. With the Russians many steps ahead of the US it is up to the seven men Shepard, Glenn, Grissom, Carpenter, Schirra, Cooper and Slayton in the Mercury program to show that they have The Right Stuff.

  This movie is one of my all time favourites. As a big space buff I fell in love with this movie. Note though that this isn't your typical space stuff movie. It concentrates far more on the human drama down on the ground and what the austronauts had to endure, the selection processes and their highs and lows than the scenes in space. The film portrays beautifully the frustration of cancelled launches the technical glitches, the effects on personal relationships, the rigorous training and selection methods, the glory of success and the sense of fulfilment in achieving a goal.

  The movie succeeds in not over Americanising the achievements as happens with so many movies these days (Independence Day, Armageddon?) and still maintaining the pride of the American people. Of special note is the depiction of the Russians as worthy competitors and better in many areas than the US. This is rarely seen in Hollywood movies these days. Film after film, shows Russia always bowing to the US and being incapable of doing anything. 

  My favourite scene in the film is that of John Glenn in the Mercury capsule orbiting the earth as it
changes from day to night. Even for a 15 year old movie, the effect here is simply spectacular and sure stirred up that space animal in me.

  While the movie runs for almost 3hrs it never becomes boring or slow thanks to the skillfulness of director Philip Kaufman. It flows beautifully and elegantly from start to finish.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1:85:1, 16x9 enhanced. Before proceeding I'd like to remind you that this film was made in 1983 and therefore the master that it was made from will of course not be of the same quality standard that the current movies are. That said the picture was still excellent with only the occasional film artefact, which was expected due to the film's age. The colours were sharp, no aliasing and nice detail. Overall a nice transfer.

Audio:

The sound mix is really outstanding. There is very extensive use of the surrounds, with jets flying all around and over you and there is great detail in the sounds. There is also plenty of bass in that .1 channel to really impress you about the sound mix on this disc.

THE EXTRAS

There are plenty of extras on this disc. As well as all the usual that Warner includes on their discs, ie production notes, cast and crew bios, each with their filmography, information on the making of the film, as well as other film recommendations there is also a long (~3.5min) and very nice theatrical trailer. But the most impressive extra is a huge amount of textual information on many aspectsof the film. There are bios of the Mercury astronauts portrayed, the important dates in the space programme, a glossary of aviation terms and pilot lingo, as well as a history and timeline of NASA.
The extras are on both side of the disc so you can watch them at any time without flipping. Nice thought by Warner.

SUMMARY

This is really a great movie on a disc with plentiful extras. Only drawback is that the disc is a flipper. However even with that in mind it still is a fantastic title to add to a collection. Highly recommended.