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Title: The Right Stuff (1983)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Sam Shepard | ... | Chuck Yeager | |
| Scott Glenn | ... | Alan Shepard | |
| Ed Harris | ... | John Glenn | |
| Dennis Quaid | ... | Gordon Cooper | |
| Fred Ward | ... | Gus Grissom | |
| Barbara Hershey | ... | Glennis Yeager | |
| Kim Stanley | ... | Pancho Barnes | |
| Veronica Cartwright | ... | Betty Grissom | |
| Pamela Reed | ... | Trudy Cooper | |
| Scott Paulin | ... | Deke Slayton | |
| Charles Frank | ... | Scott Carpenter | |
| Lance Henriksen | ... | Wally Schirra | |
| Donald Moffat | ... | Lyndon B. Johnson | |
| Levon Helm | ... | Jack Ridley / Narrator | |
| Mary Jo Deschanel | ... | Annie Glenn | |
Tom Wolfe's book on the history of the U.S. Space program reads like a novel, and the film has that same fictional quality. It covers the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager to the Mercury 7 astronauts, showing that no one had a clue how to run a space program or how to select people to be in it. Thrilling, funny, charming and electrifying all at once. Written by John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>
This picture was selected as Best Picture of its year by 2 of the best movie reviewers in recent memory, Siskel & Ebert. They both chose this film because "it showed how things get done in America."
This is one of my favorite films. If you remember the space race (and not fantasize you do like some other reviewers on this page) and the Mercury astronauts were your heroes too, then watching this movie is like going home again.
As for the younger crowd? Watching this true story will be a lot of fun, and there are a lot of laughs. But more importantly, it will give you a look into a time when your country actually tried to do important things: not b/c they were easy, as President Kennedy said, but b/c they were hard. A concept so sadly lacking these days.
Watch everyone, and enjoy. It's quite a ride, and it all really happened.