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The Right Stuff
Digging back into the early 80's, Vera and I both realized we had never seen The Right Stuff. Which is really odd because when it was released, I was at the right age to really be into the whole space program. :-)
The movie traces the parallel paths of the early test pilots (who were struggling to break the sound barrier, and then eventually in continued competition to outdo each other) and the early astronauts (who were subjected to all sorts of interesting preparations and trials as NASA struggled to keep up with the Russians). The cast is an ensemble of many talented actors playing famous folks from history, including Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager, Ed Harris as John Glenn, Dennis Quaid as Gordon Cooper, and Scott Glenn as Sam Shepard, who practically steals the show.
The mood of the film is overall serious but with a generous dose of humor tossed in to keep things moving throughout the 3+ hours of its running time. There is a lot of history to tell, and this movie does a good job of keeping it all straight. There are a lot of great character moments, especially concerning the families of those who were putting their lives in danger, and the tension that remained between those who stayed behind as test pilots versus those who decided to sign up to be astronauts.
Having seen the outstanding HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon a couple of years ago, this movie turned out to be an excellent "prequel" of sorts to the history of the Apollo missions as shown in that miniseries.
Random unexpected cast sightings were Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer as bumbling recruiters for the space program.
Overall, this was a fun and fascinating movie with great characters and an interesting story to tell. 3.5/4 stars.