The Right Stuff

"How the future began."

1983 3h 13m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 1,012

DramaHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

At the dawn of the Space Race, seven test pilots set out to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings momentous challenges.

“How the future began.”

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Cast

Sam Shepard
Chuck Yeager
Scott Glenn
Alan Shepard
Ed Harris
John Glenn
Dennis Quaid
Gordon Cooper
Fred Ward
Gus Grissom
Barbara Hershey
Glennis Yeager
Kim Stanley
Pancho Barnes
Veronica Cartwright
Betty Grissom

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Philip Kaufman
Writers: Philip Kaufman
Languages: English, Russian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

At 193 minutes, this is a three-hour-plus commitment — longer than 95% of films ever made.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 80% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

43 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Philip Kaufman, shot by Caleb Deschanel. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Bill Conti. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Glenn Farr shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Sam Shepard and Scott Glenn and Ed Harris carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Philip Kaufman directs. Caleb Deschanel behind the camera. Bill Conti scores. Glenn Farr cuts. A long sit — settle in. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1At 193 minutes, this is a three-hour-plus commitment — longer than 95% of films ever made.
2Earned back only 80% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
343 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.
5Directed by Philip Kaufman, shot by Caleb Deschanel. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Bill Conti. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Glenn Farr shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Sam Shepard and Scott Glenn and Ed Harris carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "How the future began.".
10IMDB entry: tt0086197 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 21 themes, including "based on novel or book", "nasa", "politics", "cold war".

The technical file

Cinematography: Caleb Deschanel
Original score: Bill Conti
Editing: Glenn Farr
Production design: Geoffrey Kirkland
Makeup / hair: Pat Grover
Sound: Todd Boekelheide
Stunt coordinator: Buddy Joe Hooker
Runtime: 193 min · 3h 13m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $27,000,000
Box office: $21,500,000
Return: 80% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: The Right Stuff (1983)

Awards

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Academy Award for Best Sound Editing
Academy Award for Best Film Editing
Academy Award for Best Sound
Academy Award for Best Original Score

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Philip Kaufman

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Filipe Manuel Neto2023-07-20
★ 8/10
Overall, it's a good movie about the start of the space race. The space race was one of the aspects that marked the intense rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. There was the notion that space could be a battleground or a zone of influence, as colonial territories had been decades before, and that the nuclear threat made it urgent to dominate space. That's why the Mercury Program was born, responsible for the first suborbital and orbital flights carried out by the USA. Directed by Philip Kaufman, the film is very good and very well made, even if, at times, it resembles an expensive advertisement for NASA and what was done by the North Americans in the space race. It is a long film, with three hours, but that is justified by covering a large period of time and giving us a very global view of the Mercury missions. This leads me to another problem: you need to have a minimal knowledge of the program and who was part of it to be able to understand everything the film shows, because there are not many explanations and the film presumes that the audience knows what they are watching. The cast is, perhaps, one of the most important aspects of the film, since it is largely based on the development of the characters and on the way each actor worked and developed his character. And there is no doubt that we have a wide range of talented artists here where Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, Ed Harris and Dennis Quaid dominate the canvas and capture our full attention. There's no way to single out just one or two, I think each of them did the best they could with what they had at hand, and director Kaufman got the best out of them all. It's a very light film, not a dense drama full of technical aspects or complicated ideas. The film even manages to give us an idea of the political and financial management of the project, and the use that American politicians were making of it for electoral purposes. There's some room for humor, but it's not a movie that makes us laugh out loud. The most comical situation for me was the way in which an American vice president was stopped at the door of an astronaut's house by his wife. The dialogues are good, they are well written, and the visual and special effects used are convincing. This film also has good cinematography and a very atmospheric soundtrack.

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