Based on Tom Wolfe's novel. A sprawling account of the space race, beginning with the fearless test pilots who break the sound barrier, led by Sam Shephard. He is joined by cocky Dennis Quaid and the story soon turns to space travel, and we meet the rest of the team led by Ed Harris, Scott Glenn and Fred Ward. Wives are on hand in the shape of Barbara Hershey, Veronica Cartwright, Kim Stanley and Pamela Reed. Plus Donald Moffat good as the vice president, and Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer. Q even spotted Walkabout's David Gulpilil.
Our friendly editor Steve Rotter told us to look out for his amazing scene of the first Mach One - 'it breaks screen direction rules and yet works like a dream', he said - he defied cinematic convention by cutting the plane speeding across the screen in two different directions - something I bet the Russians would have done in something like Man With a Movie Camera.
The real footage is very nicely integrated into the fiction.
Lots of great moments keep one rivetted - loved the montage of take off failures ending with the nose coming off with a 'pop'. Endurance tests, pilots standing up to scientists, experiences of wives all good. Another great sequence near the end has Shephard in even more extreme flying sequence. Four other editors worked on this - Glen Farr, Lisa Fruchtman, Douglas Stewart and Tim Rolf. They won the Oscar as did Mark Berger, Thomas Scott, Randy Thom and David Macmillian for great sound. Bill Conti's score and the sound effects editing also won.
It was photographed rather splendidly by Caleb Deschanel.
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