The Right Stuff

Yes, the movie did take a few "artistic licenses" with history. Especially with Yeager/Ridley. His flights depicted: X-1, X-1A, NF-104 were all well planned and prepared rather than spur of the moment as depicted/insinuated in the film. But it is still a great movie and overall quite historicly accurate, and remains one of my favorites.

It has a bunch of cute homage shots.

One is the part where Cooper and his wife arrive at Edwards and she goes through the horrible little house. It is a direct lift from the scene in "Strategic Air Command" where Jimmy Stewart gives up his carrier as a player for the cardinals and goes back into the service, and June Allyson moves into their base quarters. Right down to the constant overhead roar of take offs.

Another is when our heroes are in the various Mercuries, and the lights from the control panels are reflected on their visors. 2001.

I first saw the movie at the post theater on Ft Polk in early 1984. There were several Army wives seated behind me during the showing. So I got to hear a running commentary from them about all the wives' scenes of military life. They sure gave me the impression that the film makers nailed that aspect.

My favorite scene is when Yeager defends Grissom from "screwing the pooch" by reminding those that a Monkey doesnt know that he is sitting on a potential BOMB waiting to exlode. "see those astronaut boy know this, I think Gus did alright."

Yes I thought about the scene the other day when somebody brought up Nixon's contingency speech for  Apollo 11 on the internet regarding teh death of Neil Armstrong. Those Astronauts knew that if something went wrong, they were staying on the moon for however many hours they had left. No possible hope of rescue and recovery. It amazed me to read the goofball comments about it too. Some people just dont get it.

The first three groups of astronauts were mainly test/fighter pilots. They wanted guys that were absolutely willing to put their lives on the line and knew any flight could be their last.

Instead of one little scene at the beginning, they should have made Pancho Barnes the main character.

joeleonetti

My favorite scene is when Yeager defends Grissom from "screwing the pooch" by reminding those that a Monkey doesnt know that he is sitting on a potential BOMB waiting to exlode. "see those astronaut boy know this, I think Gus did alright."

Didn't Yeager (in the movie) also say something like, "It takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially when it's going to be on TV."?  Or something close to that?  (It's been a while.)  Great, great film.

Shame Hans von Hammer is not posting...he has some first hand stories to tell.

PritMar

Instead of one little scene at the beginning, they should have made Pancho Barnes the main character.

She did have a fairly good supporting role until the movie focused more on the Astronauts and less on Yeager. But yes, she is worthy of a film of her own, from what I have read about her. Far more colorful of a person than Amelia Earhart, and just as much of an aviation pioneer.

PBS recently did a special about her ad her life. Very dynamic, passionate woman who blazed a trail in aviation.. Look here for more info:

www.legendofpanchobarnes.com/.../index.php

Yes, and Lifetime or whoever did a biopic on her years ago starring Valeri Bertanelli ... heck you could do a movie about Pancho Barnes and Jackie Cochran and get a ladies equivalent of the Right Stuff and include Yeager, Ridley, Welch, and all the other great pilots of that time and place...

Recruiter 2: LOOKS LIKE WE'RE HEADING FOR SOME AIR BASES.
 
Recruiter 1: ONLY THE ONE WITH THE GREAT TEST PILOTS. I WAS THERE ONCE BEFORE, AND I HOPED I'D NEVER HAVE TO GO BACK. IT'S A GODFORSAKEN SPOT ON THE DESERT IN CALIFORNIA, SOME PREHISTORIC THROWBACK OF AN AIRFIELD CALLED EDWARDS. THEY'VE GOT SOME MAD, MONK SQUADRON HERE LIVING IN RAT SHACKS, TERRIBLE CONDITIONS. CORRUGATED TIN, BARE BONES, LOW RENT. HERE'S WHERE THEY HANG OUT. PANCHO'S HAPPY BOTTOM
RIDING CLUB.
 
Recruiter 2: IT'S CALLED HAPPY BOTTOM RIDING CLUB? HOW DID IT GET THAT NAME?
 
Recruiter 1: ASK PANCHO.

Recruiter 2: LOCK UP?
 
Recruiter 1: YEAH. WE'RE SUPPOSED TO MEET THE LIASON OFFICER HERE. THEY ARE EXPECTING US.
 
Recruiter 2: THEY? WHO'S THEY?
 
Recruiter 1: THE BEST... GIVE ME THAT. THE WORLD'S BEST TEST PILOTS. 

Recruiter 2: HERE?
 
Recruiter 1: THEY GOT SOME LITTLE BROTHERHOOD. THEY THINK THEY GOT THE RIGHT STUFF.
 
Recruiter 2: YOU MEAN, HEROISM, BRAVERY? ARE THERE SNAKES HERE?
 
Recruiter 1: YEAH, IN THE BUSHES. THERE'S MORE TO IT THAN BRAVERY.
 
Recruiter 2: WHAT DO THEY SAY IT MEANS?
 
Recruiter 1: THEY DON'T SAY ANYTHING. THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT IT.
 
Recruiter 2: YOU MEAN TO OUTSIDERS?
 
Recruiter 1: TO EACH OTHER. TO OUTSIDERS, THEY SAY EVEN LESS. ANYWAY, THEY'RE ALL HERE, INCLUDING THE ACE OF ACES HIMSELF.
 
Recruiter 2: WHO'S THAT?
 
Recruiter 1: YEAGER.
 
Recruiter 2: NEVER HEARD OF HIM.

Ya just gotta love scriptwritng like this!

I wish I still had that movie, is one of my favs....

I love this quote -

There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. His controls would freeze up, his plane would buffet wildly, and he would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man would ever pass. They called it the sound barrier.

Then they built a small plane to try and break the sound barrier, they called it the X-1

Men came to the high desert of California to ride it, they were called test pilots, and nobody knew their names.

— Ridley in the 1983 movie 'The Right Stuff

Theuns

Theuns

I wish I still had that movie, is one of my favs....

I love this quote -

There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. His controls would freeze up, his plane would buffet wildly, and he would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man would ever pass. They called it the sound barrier.

Then they built a small plane to try and break the sound barrier, they called it the X-1

Men came to the high desert of California to ride it, they were called test pilots, and nobody knew their names.

— Ridley in the 1983 movie 'The Right Stuff

Theuns

Those words are Tom Wolfe's, the best chronicler of American culture in the second half of the 20th Century (IMHO), from the book The Right Stuff, which inspired the movie.  I recommend any and all of his books to all and everyone.

The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe is an excellent read. I believe it was the first look at NASA behind the scenes. After I read this I had a better sense of the human side of the astronauts and others behind the space program.

It is a movie that really has empathy for the pilots.

Levon Helm who played Jack Ridley passed away this summer. His vocal in the quote above is classic. An Arkansan accent, but close as Ridley was from Oklahoma.

Now Ridley went on to get a Masters Degree in Aeronautics from Cal Tech in Pasadena. All of which is to say he was the key engineer in the test fight program for the X-1 in a far less casual way that the movie suggests.

Old Ordie

Those words are Tom Wolfe's, the best chronicler of American culture in the second half of the 20th Century (IMHO)

My first wife knew Tom Wolfe and interviewed him when he came out to Chapel Hill.

He dedicated a whole day, without an agent present, to each interview.

I wonder how many people under 60 read the Atlantic; Vanity Fair; the New Republic; the New Yorker- any more.

I dont... FSM is about the only magazine that I read regularly... I will thumb through whatever the dentist or barber shop has that catches my interest, (usually National Geographic and Maxim respectively) while I wait, but 99% of my reading is books.

I've been a Tom Wolfe fan since I first read The Pump House Gang, back in the day.  My first wife was a part-time hanger-on with some of the people from the Pump House bunch during the time covered by the book, and she recommended it to me (she thought she could surf ...).

Warning - The Pump House Gang has absolutely nothing to do with space ...

GMorrison

... I wonder how many people under 60 read the Atlantic; Vanity Fair; the New Republic; the New Yorker- any more.

Probably not many.  I used to read the Atlantic and New Republic regularly in my college days, and for a few years after, and once in a while picked up a New Yorker, but that was long, long ago.  Today, my regular magazine consumption is FSM and Flight Journal, with an occasional Sea Classics or Air Classics in the mix.  I read books these days, mainly, history and an occasional novel.