The Right Stuff (1983)

Heroes aren't always the people in the headlines; sometimes they're the ones quietly pushing past every limit when no one is watching. Philip Kaufman's "The Right Stuff," his intimate yet epic adaptation of Tom Wolfe's bestselling book about the Mercury astronauts, was one of the most ambitious and thrilling films of the 1980s. It surprised nearly everyone by failing to become a smash hit. By rights, it should have been every bit the success that "Apollo 13" later became, since it's just as exciting and an even bigger, better movie. Blending history, both official and revisionist, with grand mythmaking and myth-busting, adventure, melodrama, behind-the-scenes gossip, stunning visuals and a down-to-earth sense of humor, it chronicles America's race to put a man in orbit. Such a feat would be a first step toward the moon and, perhaps most important of all, a crucial boost to national pride after the Soviets stunned the world by launching Sputnik, the first satellite. The film contrasts the daring feats of the unsung test pilots, especially Chuck Yeager, the man who broke the sound barrier in 1947 and best embodied the skill and spirit of Wolfe's title, with the heavily publicized, carefully polished exploits of the Mercury astronauts. Through no fault of their own, the astronauts became prisoners of the heroic images the government created to capture the public's imagination. The casting is inspired: Sam Shepard as the legendary Yeager, Ed Harris as John Glenn, Dennis Quaid as Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard, Fred Ward as Gus Grissom and Scott Wilson as test pilot Scott Crossfield. Barbara Hershey plays Yeager's wife, Glennis, and Pamela Reed and Veronica Cartwright are superb in the thankless roles of astronauts' wives. It won four Oscars, including Bill Conti's rousing score, and earned a Best Picture nomination.