Talkback: What's Your Favorite Movie About the U.S. Space Program?
"After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history, and it's come to a final stop." Those were the words of Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson, commander of the shuttle Atlantis, upon landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Thursday morning. After 135 launches, NASA has officially retired the manned shuttle program, which means it's time to look back on its storied history the only way that seems appropriate: by remembering favorite space movies? Sure, let's go with it!
From The Right Stuff to Apollo 13 to Space Cowboys, Space Chimps and even Transformers: Dark of the Moon, NASA and space flight have been a part of Hollywood lore for nearly as long as space shuttle missions. For my money, you can't really beat The Right Stuff, an epic (it was two VHS tapes back in the day!) about the dawn of the space program, though if you're in the mood for less historically accurate tales of astronauts, there's always Armageddon. ("Talk about the wrong stuff.")
What are your favorite space program films? Does Space Camp still make you feel warm and fuzzy inside? Are you an October Sky kind of person? Watch clips from The Right Stuff and Armageddon below, then leave your thoughts in the comments section.
"Give this to Truman!" That ridiculousness always gets me.
[Photo: Getty Images]
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Comments
I just re-watched "The Right Stuff" a couple of months ago, and it's still such a fantastic movie. Just the right blend of humor, cynicism and patriotism. It's even better than "The Reluctant Astronaut."
Space Chimps and Space Camp are the best.
Surprisingly, the most accurate as well.
There's so many good ones to choose from, so I narrowed it down to these:
SPACE COWBOYS (not well recieved, but it watches somewhat like a sequel to my next entry)
THE RIGHT STUFF
CAPRICORN ONE
ARMAGEDDON
It' difficult to say "best" without a specific criteria; historically accurate, entertaining, TWISHB, Wholley Fictional [like Mission to Mars], etc. But, for my money, here's the ranking [with the caveat that TRS was too damn long]:
1st-Tie: Space Camp / October Sky
2nd- Apollo 13 [YES, you CAN argue it should be #1, tomorrow I may agree]
3rd - Capricorn One [Politically Accurate Category makes it #1!]
4th-Tie: Space Cowboys / Armageddon
5th-Marooned
6th- 2001; A Space Odessey
7th-Deep Impact [it shows the NEED for better Space Exploration]
"Apollo 13"!
Armageddon was definitely one of my favorite movies as it took me to a wonderful place and then to outer space and starred a class A cast. It has a tear filled ending and which would be necessary as the world was saved so Bruce Willis had to die at the end. With the dynamics going on between Bruce and Ben's character, I thought the ending was perfectly done. Having the charismatic Steve Buscemi and his fantastic ability to bring a higher level to any movie casted is always wonderful. The one scene from that film that will never leave my mind is when the NASA coffee mug drops from Billy Bob Thornton’s hand, there was just a haunting aspect to that scene that only lasted a moment but it was enough to leave an imprint. Those moments make films! I love film, I write for a blog I’ve been keeping for years and I’ve had some very loyal members and some that have come and gone. It really doesn’t matter as long as while they are hanging around they are just as fascinated with the multiple aspects of film as I am. My work has been keeping me traveling a lot lately and I have to rip through quite a bit of materials to keep the level I want and the discussions interesting. I do require research and I travel frequently for work so it sometimes makes it difficult but I figured I needed to start doing some research on how best to get the information while away so I could keep up on my writing. I began searching for a solution that would branch out into all the options needed to suit all the requirements and recently it’s been obvious. Because I love to write and I require a resources that allows me the movies and TV options necessary to give me an array of choices. It was a bit shocking that Comcast wasn’t making 100% digital programming available plus had such limitations in their programming and initial free equipment. International channels were quite limited which means my writing would suffer on that level and they were not offering HD free for life. This certainly would not work due to the type of writing I do which is all based off movies and the actors surrounding them. Now I did find that with Dish Network I can get more programming and movie channels for far less money plus a free Sling Adapter which fits me as I travel a lot and need to bring my services with me. I ended up changing jobs and started working for Dish Network, still traveling a lot but understanding better how all this is possible. Now I am clear that whatever makes it easiest to work and enjoy my own hobby is what is necessary which brings happiness to me and those counting on me. It seems like more and more less of those type of movies are being made, I don’t know if it’s just a few of us that see it that way or if there are more of you out there that feel that way but, I miss the Hollywood I used to know. So I’ve started focusing my blog on older films so we can be enchanted once more, I know have what I need to do that. http://www.besttvforme.com/
Paragraphs? We don't need no stinkin' paragraphs!