Actors - The Right Stuff

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	Actors - The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff is both a 1979 book by Tom Wolfe, and a 1983 film adapted from the book. They both recount the story of the first seven astronauts selected for the NASA space program, based on interviews and research by Wolfe. The story tells not only of the "Mercury Seven" and their families, but also the contrasting fate of Chuck Yeager, who was considered by many test pilots to be the best of them all, but who was never selected as an astronaut.

According to the book's introduction, the book was inspired by the desire to find out why the astronauts willingly put themselves at risk to fly into space. Wolfe's book recounts the enormous risks that test pilots were already taking, and their belief that the selectivity of reaching the ranks of a test pilot (and thus possessing "the right stuff") gave. Wolfe likens the astronauts to 'single combat champions' from an earlier era, receiving the honor and adoration of their people before going forth to fight on their behalf.

The story is more about the space race than about space exploration in general. It mentions the Soviet Union's efforts only occasionally and focuses on the USA. Emphasis is given to the personal stories of the astronauts and their wives rather than the technical aspects of space travel and the flights themselves. But it also focuses on the political reasons for putting people into space. It is made obvious that the astronauts are really a burden to the program and are only sent up for promotional reasons. The reason to include living beings in the spacecrafts are barely mentioned, but the first option that was considered was to use a chimpanzee (and, indeed, chimpanzees were sent up first). The next options considered were people who could take the physical stress, like circus artists. But the president insisted on pilots, even though whoever was on board initially didn't need to do anything, just sit there. When Gus Grissom landed at sea and left his space capsule, the rescue squad tried to save the capsule before him because the data were considered more important. Another political issue (mentioned in the film, not in the book) was Grissom's name. Gus was not considered a good name for an astronaut, but his second name was Ivan and that was even less appropriate (being too Russian-sounding).

An interesting aspect of the story is that both sides of the space race (US and USSR) used experienced German engineers and rocket scientists. In a particularly humorous moment in the film version, Senator Lyndon Johnson (in a very broad, and very funny, caricature), asks "Is it their German scientists that got them up there first?". At that moment, the "German scientist" (a composite character) responds: "No Senator...our Germans are better than their Germans."

Although a fictional moment, it nicely captures an overall truth. The early U.S. rockets such as the Redstone, which carried Alan Shepard into space, were in fact only slight updates of the German V-2 rockets from the Second World War. The design program was led by Wernher von Braun, Nazi Germany's chief rocket scientist, who had surrendered to U.S. forces in Germany (and had avoided surrendering to Soviet forces). By this time, he was working for the United States.

The later Atlas rockets, such as the one used to put John Glenn into orbit, were of American design.

The movie

The movie is 3 hours and 13 minutes long and stars Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Barbara Hershey, Kim Stanley, Levon Helm, Veronica Cartwright, Pamela Reed and Lance Henriksen.

The screenplay was adapted by Philip Kaufman from the book, with contributions from screenwriter William Goldman. It was directed by Kaufman.

It won Academy Awards for Sound Effects Editing; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Score and Best Sound. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Sam Shepard), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography and Best Picture.

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