There was a demon that lived in the air... he lived at Mach One...

July 20, 2017

Tonight’s movie, carrying on with Ed Harris as our link, is The Right Stuff. Based on the remarkable book by Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff tells the story of how the American space program came about. Interestingly, though, the story is told from two viewpoints – the one following the pilots who became our original Mercury astronauts, and the one of one of the greatest pilots of the Aviation Age, who was denied the privilege of being a part of the Mercury program because (wait for it…), he did not go to college.

You read that right, folks.  When President Eisenhower panicked about the Russian satellite Sputnik crawling across American skies and demanded America be the first country to put men in space, it was decided that these brave men had to fall into a certain list of “must haves.” They must be test pilots, they must be part of the Armed Services, and they must have graduated college. It just so happened that the best pilot in the Armed Services at the time was a man named Chuck Yeager.

Yeager was a pilot in the Army Air Forces. He had gone in from the ground up, as a private. When the race to break the sound barrier was heating up, pilots were dying, trying to ‘punch a hole in the sky.” The sound barrier was just too much, it was said. It sent violent tremors through the planes, made the

controls almost useless, and the G Forces made pilots black out, leaving them helpless. Some pilots were
demanding extravagant bonuses to even attempt to break it. When pilot Slick Goodlin told officials he would try it for a $10,000 bonus, the officials balked. They turned to Yeager, who agreed to do it. When they asked him what bonus he would require, he reportedly said, “Hell, the Army pays me, don’t it?”

And the rest, as they say, is history…

Yeager broke the sound barrier, and many other records as the years went on, but, when the Higher Ups went looking for astronaut candidates, Yeager was not even considered, because he had gone from high school into the Army, foregoing college. And, as I said, that wasn’t the mold the government wanted to fill. Instead, an extensive “boot camp” was held, with pilots from the Air Force, Marines, and Navy, and, when the dust had settled, seven men were chosen. John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, and Gordon Cooper.

I first saw this movie on HBO, back when HBO went off the air at 3 AM. The Right Stuff was rated PG, despite a few F-Bombs, so HBO showed it every day for a year, it seemed like. In this case, though, it wasn’t such a bad thing. By telling the story from the two differing angles, writer-director Phil Kaufman made a terrific film. His casting was very important to the success, I grant you. Watching Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Sam Shepard, and Scott Glenn in top form is a treat, but Kaufman also gave time to the wives of the Mercury crew , something that really had not even been discussed much, other than the trite Life magazine stories ghost-written for them as “their stories.”

Pamela Reed, Mary Jo Deschanel, and Veronica Cartwright get the most time, playing, respectively, Trudy Cooper, Annie Glenn, and Betty Grissom. Kathy Baker, as Louise Shepard, is also great. We are introduced to the notion, though, that, while it might seem great and glamorous, being the wife of an astronaut, it is often a very disappointing life, being in the shadow of a world hero.

I am also a great fan of Levon Helm. I have loved his music, both solo and as a performer with The Band, for years. But he is actually a very good actor. You may have known that he played Loretta Lynn’s father in Coal Miner’s Daughter, but his character in The Right Stuff, Jack Ridley, who flew with Yeager, is also the narrator. His distinctive voice chimes in now and then to keep us in check, not letting us forget that he, Yeager, Scott Crossfield, and other very accomplished pilots were risking their lives the same way the astronauts were, and doing it for a paycheck and nothing more. No glory, no fame, just punching away at that envelope, trying to see who could fly farther, higher, and faster than anyone else.

Look for some familiar faces in minor roles, too. Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer are the recruiters who go out to find the candidates for the Mercury program. The amazing Donald Moffat plays then-vice-president Lyndon Johnson to the absolute hilt. The Walking Dead alum Scott Wilson plays Scott Crossfield, another Army pilot who got ignored, despite setting many of the air speed records after the sound barrier was broken.

If you have not seen The Right Stuff, make the time to do so. Pack a lunch, it’s a long movie, but it is well worth your time. It’s not often a history lesson is this compelling to watch. Even though you may know how the Mercury program turned out, mission for mission, you will find yourself sucked into the tension surrounding the scares and troubles surrounding the historic outcomes.