The Right Stuff (1983)

Director: Philip Kaufman

Entertainment grade: A–

History grade: A

After the second world war, the US ran a testing programme for high-speed, rocket-powered aircraft at Muroc field, later Edwards air force base, in southern California. The era also saw the early days of the space programme and the selection of the US's first astronauts, known as the Mercury Seven.

People

Philip Kaufman's epic yet gripping film begins with test pilot Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) going for a drink in a local bar, and casually signing up to break the sound barrier. "If you ask me, I think the damn thing doesn't exist," he says gruffly. Then he falls off his horse while riding it around the desert in a daring competition with his firecracker wife Glennis (Barbara Hershey). He breaks two ribs, but pretends to be fine so they won't take him off the mission – and then successfully pilots the Bell X-1, becoming the first man to go faster than the speed of sound. Yeager appears to have sprung straight from the Big Book of American Heroes – strong jaw, cowboy hat, horse sense, stoic manner – but he really was like this, and doubtless still is. He last broke the sound barrier in 2012, aged 89, in an F-15. Total badass.

Technology

Meanwhile, in Washington DC, President Dwight D Eisenhower (Robert Beer) and Senator Lyndon B Johnson (Donald Moffat) are upset that the Soviets have gone and launched Sputnik-1 into outer space before they got their act together. "How the hell did they ever get ahead of us?" Johnson bellows. The answer is swiftly and amusingly illustrated when his aides cannot find the plug socket to get the meeting-room projector working. The chief scientist is unflustered. "Our Germans are better than their Germans," he says, alluding to the fact that both the Soviet and US rocket and space programmes after the war owed a great deal to former Nazi scientists.

Recruitment

The astronauts suit up in The Right Stuff. Photograph: Snap/Rex Features

The Americans plan to retaliate with the first manned space flight, though some think they should use an animal rather than a person. "The first American in space is not going to be a chimpanzee," growls Eisenhower. Possible candidates for astronauts included surfers, acrobats and rally drivers ("They already have their own helmets," says a scientific adviser, chirpily. "I don't know if that's a factor."). The film is right that it was Eisenhower who insisted that astronauts be drawn from a field of test pilots – even though they would have little role in actually piloting the craft.

Achievement

Ed Harris as John Glenn in The Right Stuff. Photograph: Warner Br/Everett/Rex

The star of the Mercury Seven is John Glenn (Ed Harris) – for he is both handsome and incredibly good at spouting wholesome patriotic platitudes in front of newsmen. "I just thank God I live in a country where the best and the finest in a man can be brought out," he says. Then the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space, beating the Americans again. Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn) has to settle for being the second. Furthermore, he desperately needs a wee before takeoff and has to go in his own spacesuit. This is accurate.

Controversy

Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff, a flashily written oral history of the space programme that served as the basis for this film, has been controversial for its portrayal of astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom (Fred Ward). Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 craft sank in the sea after the hatch opened too quickly on landing. Some blamed Grissom for panicking and opening the hatch himself. Grissom blamed it on a technical error. The film avoids showing the critical moment and thus leaves the question of what happened unanswered. In fact, Grissom may well not have been at fault – and the film is kinder to him than the book. Whatever the truth, the incident gives it a chance to show accurately the pressure that was on these men. "I wanted to eat in the White House!" his wife bawls afterwards. "I wanted to talk to Jackie [Kennedy] about … things!" Grissom was killed a few years later in the Apollo 1 fire of 1967.

Verdict

There are moments of dramatic licence, but overall The Right Stuff is a terrific historical film about the space race: accurately reflective of a complex reality, beautifully filmed, and done with wit, energy and an impressive sense of balance. Top marks.