Review of The Right Stuff (1983) by Jay L — 15 Sep 2011

"EVERYTHING IS A-OK...".

A monumentally spectacular masterpiece of vastly epic proportions. A thunderously high-flying thrill ride that's jam-packed with wicked adrenaline and wonderous intensity. Director Phillip Kaufman's (Invasion Of The Body Snatchers) Academy Award Winning biopic on the American/Russian space race of the 40's, 50's and 60's was an absolutely splendid piece of cinematic mastery. Its the seriously satirical and oddly told true story of the events leading up to the first American to orbit the Earth. Kaufman and company were quite unflinching in showing the amount of preparation and training that went into being one of the first astronauts. This film will grab you from the very first scene and hold on to you for the entire three and a half hour runtime, its absolutely astonishing for the entirety. From a technical aspect, this film is second to none, the amount of work that went into the making of this epic is phenomenal. A towering classic that was decades before its time, I havent seen such brilliantly crafted film in quite some time. The Right Stuff is "Apollo 13" multiplied by 100, its a flat-out gripping, unbelieveably suspenseful, brilliantly captivating, beyond thrilling, triumphantly tense, amazingly gorgeous, gut-bustingly funny, adrenaline-charged and over the top instant classic. This film unloads tremendous thrill after tremendous thrill, its just unmatched in the action column, it also dishes out more satire than ive seen for quite some time. Despite the long runtime, The Right Stuff is a must-see, must-own kind of film that can be enjoyed by truly anyone. A monumental masterwork that climbed to one of my all-time favorite films.

An epic film deserves an epic cast, and thats just what Phillip Kaufman and company did. Its packed with spellbinding performances from all involved. Ed Harris is brilliant as John Glenn. Sam Shepard gives his best performance as Chuck Yeager. Scott Glenn was astounding as Alan Shepard. Dennis Quaid gives a great performance as Gordo Cooper, and Fred Ward does a great job as Gus Grissom. The Right Stuff one of those films that was well done from every angle that you look at it, inside and out.