What is Philip Kaufman's adaptation and directing technique of "The Right Stuff" based on historical facts?

astronaut scout

Recruiters ordered by the government visit the Happy Bottom Riding Club in 1957 to search for astronaut candidates with "The Right Stuff" (the right qualities) among Air Force test pilots. (*11)

However, top pilots such as Jaeger and Crossfield derided the mission of simply being in a capsule as ``a can of spam'' and did not want to engage in it at all. Yeager and Crossfield also did not meet the requirements of being a military officer or a college graduate. (*12)

Recruiters also looked to the Navy and Marine Corps for candidates and received 508 applicants. After repeated rigorous physical examinations (*13) and aptitude tests, seven people were finally selected from the 59 candidates. On April 9, 1957, they held a press conference (*14) in front of a packed crowd of reporters at NASA headquarters.

"The Right Stuff" (c) 1983 The Ladd Company. All.rights reserved.

Although the members were decided, the most important part, the completion of the rocket, was delayed. The Mercury program was to use the Air Force's Atlas rocket for orbital flights around the Earth. However, because the Atlas was originally designed for use as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), it had a thin outer shell and suffered from repeated explosions.

Therefore, they had no choice but to use Redstone rockets developed by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA). It was originally a short-range, surface-to-surface missile modified from Nazi Germany's V2 rocket , with a thrust of only 34 tons.

NASA launched Mercury-Redstone 2 using this rocket on January 31, 1961, carrying Ham, a trained chimpanzee, and safely returned it to Earth. (*15)

*11 In 1957, Grissom had already moved to Wright- Paterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and it was a theatrical lie that he was there with Cooper, Slayton, Jaeger, and Crossfield.

*12 In this scene, the old man standing behind Harry Shearer, who says, ``Jaeger didn't graduate from college,'' and offering him a drink is Jaeger himself. Kaufman asked him for a cameo role, initially playing Fred, the old bartender at the Happy Bottom Riding Club, but added this role. They also cooperate as technical consultants.

*13 In the hospital examination scene, the large nurse Gonzalez (Anthony Muñoz)bill donnaShepard is angry that she imitated the character Jose Jimenez, played by In other words, this impersonation was a racist joke against Mexican mestizos (mixed race of white people and indigenous peoples of Central and South America). Gonzalez drags Shepard through the long hallways and elevators of the hospital while holding back an enema. This is also a foreshadowing for the later scene where she pees her pants.

However, Kaufman himself has used racist expressions, and the rocket engineer played by Scott Beach speaks with a terrible German accent.Operation PaperclipThis is because he is making fun of the fact that he is a German scientist who was taken to the United States. In fact, it became the model for the chief scientist.wernher von braunHe doesn't have that accent. The real Schiller was reportedly angry at this expression, saying it was ``insulting the German people.''

*14 In this press conference scene, Schiller, played by Lance Henriksen, is portrayed as a dark man of few words. However, Schiller was actually a cheerful person who seemed to be always goofing around, but he was also the person who flew the most perfect flight during the Mercury program.

On the other hand, Glenn, who monopolized the microphone and gave a long speech, was famous even back then as the man who succeeded in flying across the American continent at supersonic speed, but his speech at this press conference captivated reporters even more. Charismatic, he left NASA in 1964 to become a businessman and served as a senator from 1974 to 1999. In 1984, he ran in the Democratic presidential primary, but lost midway through. And on October 29, 1998,Space Shuttle (STS-95)So he went into space again and stayed there for nine days. He was 77 years old at the time, and this was said to demonstrate the potential of older people in spaceflight. movie"Deep Impact(1998), veteran astronaut Spurgeon "Fish" Tanner (Robert Duvall) was modeled after Glenn.

*15 Although it is not mentioned in the movie, Ham's flight was a disaster. Ham was trained to receive a banana-flavored pill if he operated the switch correctly, and to receive an electric shock if he operated the switch incorrectly. However, the capsule malfunctioned one after another, and the electric shocks continued to be given even though the switch was pressed properly. Also, the maximum acceleration during flight was calculated to be 8G, but it was actually over 14.7G. In addition, the capsule failed to land and a large amount of seawater poured into it, causing it to drown. For this reason, when he was rescued, he became furious and started biting and biting. The story is detailed in the CBC documentary One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps (2003). ↩

first American space flight

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union achieved the world's first manned spaceflight (*16), ahead of the United States. Its pilot, Yuri Gagarin , flew Vostok 1 to orbit the Earth in 1 hour and 48 minutes.

America, once again falling behind the Soviet Union, decides to launch "humans" using Redstone rockets. Redstone's thrust was limited to a suborbital flight of only about 15 minutes, so the Mercury capsule (*17) had no windows or hatches that would allow it to escape on its own. What's more, the space suit didn't even have a toilet function.

All members of the Mercury Seven were interested in who would go to space first. Most people expected it to be Glenn, but it was actually Shepard (*18) who was chosen to become America's first astronaut.

"The Right Stuff" (c) 1983 The Ladd Company. All.rights reserved.

His maiden flight of Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7) took place on May 5, 1961. However, after waiting for a long time on the launch pad, his urge to urinate reaches its limit (*19), and he is unable to hold it back and is forced to urinate inside his spacesuit. That's all the movie shows, but Shepard wasn't even wearing a diaper, so the urine got all over his body. What's more, since I was sitting on the launch pad with my back down, urine flowed down my back and into my helmet.

Despite these troubles, the flight ends in the blink of an eye, and Shepard is hailed as a hero. President Kennedy then presents him with the Distinguished Service Award at the White House.

*16 In this scene, a supermarket called "Star City, Russia" appears. butstar cityis the name of a town in Moscow where a research and training facility for cosmonauts is located. However, Vostok 1 was actually launched in the Republic of Kazakhstan.Baikonur Cosmodromewas. This is probably just a mistake rather than a performance.

*17 The Mercury capsule that appears in the movie was an accurate one, made from an actual NASA mold.

*18 Shepard was selected as the commander of Apollo 14, and was the only member of the Mercury Seven to set foot on the moon. Even in the movie, he says the line, ``I'm definitely going to the moon.''

*19 The series of shots that hint at his desire to urinate is both funny and makes you feel like it's not someone else's problem. It's a silent film technique that doesn't rely on words, but it's brilliant. Based on this experience, NASA hastily developed a urine-receiving device for the next Grissom, consisting of a condom attached to a female panty girdle.

Grissom was unhappy