High Flying Heros

THE JOHN GLENN in Philip Kaufman's production of Tom Wolfe's. The Right Stuff says "by golly" a lot, as in, "by golly, my kids are behind me 100 percent." Even after the Russians move ahead in the space race. Glenn still favors rather tame condemnations, as in, "darned Russians." Fellow astronaut Gus Grissom, not given to such restraint in speech, turns to Glenn and adds, "Fucking A," Glenn then pauses, and so does the movie, awaiting a response that will characterize not only The Right Stuffs John Glenn but also The Right Stuff itself. His earlier moralistic preaching forgotten. Glenn faces the others and exclaims, "That's right, brother!" His colleagues cheer, and if it weren't for the realities of film, the audience might just pat Glenn on the back as well.

The Right Stuff is as good as it makes John Glenn look, and his "that's right, brother," suggests the root of the movie's success. Above all else, The Right Stuff offers an engaging and appealing examination of a brotherhood of men. That these men-the seven chosen for Project Mercury in 1959-more often than not seem like boys only adds to Kaufman's realistic and colorful treatment of Wolfe's book, which in a sense chronicles a man's coming of age.

It's not the only recent movie to focus on make camaraderie. In Barry Levinson's Diner, an impending marriage highlighted the special attraction of a night spent with fries, gravy and the boys. In Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter, the soon to-be soldiers played pool, got drunk and sang "You're Too Good To Be True" before they headed to Vietnam. For their part, Kaufman's astronauts make imaginary planes with their hands and provide their own sound effects. Then they risk their lives to test an aircraft, break the sound barrier or orbit the earth.

In such movies a redirection of sexual drives accents the group's closeness. When faced with a gang war in the streets or a real war in another country, a man doesn't necessarily need a woman in order to come of age. In The Right Stuff, the thrill and danger of flying monopolize the men's attention, a situation one wife not so subtly recognizes. " Punch a hole in the sky." Glennis Yeager (Barbara Hershey) tells husband Chuck (Sam Shepard) before he lowers himself into his cockpit. Yeager sets off and does break a record, and immediately afterwards he allows his plane to veer from its rigid course and weave through the sky, passing unusually dream-like cloud formations. The scene lacks only the requisite cigarette. It's a solo experience, without doubt, and each pilot displays a not unattractive narcissism. "Who's the best pilot you ever saw?" one asks his wife again and only to answer himself with a simple, "I am."

The right stuff for an astronaut involves a definite lack of depth, which isn't to say these men are fools. Rather, they move as with blinders, interested almost solely in the fulfillment of their boyish dreams to be the fastest man on earth, or as Gordon Cooper phrases it, to be "the hotdog man himself." The proprietress of the restaurant on Edwards Air Force Base even promises a prize for the winner of one of their games. Says she, "The first fella that breaks the sound barrier's gonna get a free steak with all the trimmin's."

Of course few boys play games in the public eye, especially games which kill 62 pilots in 32 weeks. As one astronaut candidate explains. "Whoever survives this competition is destined to become a legend in his own time. "The Right Stuff takes a humorous and often moving look not only at the strengths of legends but also at the weaknesses of these men. And the movie's strength results in part from its ability to fuse the seven men into one, a team that overlooks its individual differences and concentrates on its similarities in order to overcome a common danger. Glenn need not undermine his morals and say damned right, fucking a. "His "that's right, brother" is enough to suggest the importance the group places on unity and an almost loving acceptance of one another. The movie invites us to join a hard to resist team as it attempts to conquer a new frontier.

THE RIGHT STUFF begins in 1947 at Edwards Air Force Base, where we first meet some of the men who a decade later will become astronauts: Cooper (Dennis Quaid), Grissom (Fred Ward) and Deke Slayton (Scott Paulin). Along the way NASA adds Glenn (Ed Harris). Alan Sheperd (Scott Glenn). Scott Carpenter (Charles Frank) and Wally Schirra (Larrie Henriksen). But Yeager remains on the California desert to continue his test runs which seem every bit as heroic as his counterparts' trips into space. As portrayed by the playwright Sam Shepard, Yeager stands above the rest. His humility, perseverance and courage imply that even someone not lionized by the media may just possess all the right stuff as well. And the movie's reluctance to abandon Yeager, even after the rest have headed to Cape Canaveral, reveals Kaufman and Wolfe's sympathies: the success of programs like Project Mercury are due in large part to men like Yeager.

For the most part, the film focuses on Yeager, Glenn, Cooper, Shepard and, to an almost equal extent, their wives, a collection of women who offer moral support to one another and provide some the film's most effective scenes. Annie Glenn (Mary Jo Deschanel) stutters, a condition which makes her reluctant to meet with then-Vice-President Lyndon Johnson. Betty Grissom (Veronica Cartwright) succinctly expresses her disappointment, when her husband's first mission ends imperfectly. "Does this mean no Jackie?" she asks despondently, alluding to Louise Shepard's (Kathy Basker) visit with the First Lady. And Trudy Cooper (Pamela Reed) accepts her husband's immaturity and possible indiscretions with an eloquent passivity that questions an astronaut's image. Each performances is as fine as the next, though one wishes the movie spent more time with the wives than it does with some of its minor characters.

The government's recruiters (Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer) make Laurel and Hardy look like MacNeil and Lehrer, and the film makes Lyndon Johnson (Donald Moffat) look like Laurel or Hardy, take your pick. There he is in the back of his limousine, slamming his first together and muttering "darned housewife" when Annie Glenn refuses to see him: later he leeringly introduces fan-dancer Sally Rand; and during a film presentation with Eisenhower, Johnson sees the face of a Russian scientist and drawls. "Get that moron off of there," with the most extended moron this side of Gomer Pyle. Moffat's characterization, or rather caricature, elicits a laugh or two, but The Right Stuff's otherwise steady wit makes such heavy-handed jabs unnecessary.

Almost as interesting as the story told on the screen is the one revealed by the audience's reactions. "Star City, Russia" is superimposed on the screen and the audience hisses: Glenn successfully reenters the earth's atmosphere--humming. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." no less-and the audience cheers. Other movies certainly involve a viewer and invite similar responses, but few films seem as realistic or deal with such recent events as does The Right Stuff. Watching this movie is to be reminded, how American heroes are formed, and how quickly men transcend their ordinary qualities and become part of as popular mythology.

Indeed, the movie takes an occasionally ironic look at how these men so easily mastered the press. "Any of you to church regularly?" the astronats are asked when first presented to the media. Shepard looks up rather nervously and says." As far as church goes. I attend regularly," Those assembled at the presentation offer a round of enthusiastic applause. Shepard looks bemused, if not stratled, and again offers an example of the wide-eyed wonder that suffuses The Right Stuff.

One of the film's most indelible images remains that of Glenn in orbit, his helmet's shield reflecting the moons light and covering what little hair Ed Harris's Glenn possesses. As he literally looks around the world, he reminds one of the infant at the end of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: a child on the verge of discovery. The Right Stuff takes us along for this ride and Ed Harris almost makes us believe that charm is all the Right Stuff you need.