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

ending

The film's finale is Cooper's launch of Mercury-Atlas 9 (Face 7) on May 15, 1963.

The video follows the Atlas rocket as it soars into the sky, and says, ``Gordon Cooper was the only American to soar into the sky and fly solo, 22 times around the Earth (*33).'' "For a fleeting moment, he was literally the best pilot in the world," the narration says.

*33 At the time of this film's release, Cooper was indeed ``the last American to fly solo in space.'' But then, Scaled Compositesspacecraft spaceship oneMike Melville reached an altitude of 100.1km on June 21, 2004. Furthermore, on October 4, 2004, Brian Binney recorded a distance of 112.0 km using the same aircraft, and the company won the $10 million Ansari X Prize, a prize system for private spacecraft development. Coincidentally, on this day, Cooper suffered a heart attack and passed away at the age of 77. His ashes were launched into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on May 22, 2012.

Reaction after publication

The Right Stuff was nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Sam Shepard), Best Cinematography, and Best Art Direction/Set Design at the 56th Academy Awards in 1983, and was nominated in four categories (Best Editing, Best Music Score, It won awards for Best Sound Recording and Best Sound Effects.

However, the film's box office performance was dismal, with sales of $21.19 million against a production cost of $27 million. As a result, the Rudd Company has been hit hard, and most of its management team has been forced to retire.

This may be due to the film's long running time of 3 hours and 13 minutes. By the way, in Japan, it was released in theaters as a shortened version of 2 hours and 40 minutes. It is said that Kaufman was quite angry about this cut, but when he actually analyzed it, he found that there were no wasted shots or wasted lines at all. In fact, I feel strongly that even 3 hours and 13 minutes is not enough.

Also, the genre of ``historical material with space themes'' may have been too new for the audience. Back then, space was still the setting for science fiction and fantasy.

“Apollo 13” preview

However, this work was a catalyst for films on the history of space development to firmly establish themselves as a genre, including `` Hidden Figures Apollo 13 '' (1995), `` The October Sky '' (1999), ``Hidden Figures'' (2016), `` First Man '' (2018), the HBO TV series ``From the Earth'' (1998), the IMAX 3D film ` `Walking on the Moon '' (2005), produced and written by Tom Hanks, the BBC TV series ` `Into Space' ' (2005), the ABC TV series ``The Astronaut Wives Club'' (2015), the Australian film `` Moon Lamb '' (2000), the Russian films `` The Astronaut Doctor '' (2008), `` Gagarin: 108 Minutes that Changed the World '' (2013), `` Salyut 7 '' (2016), and `` Spacewalker '' (2017). To this list, we could also add (although not manned) the Japanese films " Hayabusa " (2011), " Hayabusa: The Long Journey Home " (2012), and " Welcome Back, Hayabusa " (2012).

In addition, in the field of fiction, the Japanese theatrical animation `` Royal Space Force Honneamise no Tsubasa '' (1987), the NHK TV drama series `` Manten '' (2002-2003), the TV animation `` Rocket Girl '' (2007), and comics based on It has had a great influence on works such as `` Futatsu no Spica '' (2003-04 anime version) (2009 drama version) and ``Space Brothers'' (12 movie version) (14 anime version). In other words, ``The Right Stuff'' was an influential work in film history.

The National Geographic Channel is currently producing a 10-episode television series called The Right Stuff, which will include other episodes of Project Mercury that probably never made it out, as well as projects such as X-15 and X-20. It is expected that the spotlight will be given to Leonardo DiCaprio is the executive producer.

[References]

■Written by Tom Wolfe: “The Right Stuff - Seven Astronauts (Chukou Bunko)” Chuokoronsha (1983)

■Author: Chuck Yeager/Leo Janos:The man who broke the Jaeger sound barrier” Sankei Publishing (1986)

■Written by Kanichiro Kato: “The Golden Age of the Sky: Challenging the Wall of Sound” University of Tokyo Press (2013)

■Written by Yasushi Sato: “NASA - 60 years of space development (Chuko Shinsho)” Chuokoron-Shinsha (2014)

■Written by Yasunori Matokawa: “Two scientists aiming for the moon - The trajectory of Apollo and Sputnik (Chuko Shinsho)” Chuokoron-Shinsha (2000)

■Written by John Noble Wilford: “'THE RIGHT STUFF': FROM SPACE TO THE SCREEN” The New York Times (Oct. 16, 1983)

■Yasunori Matokawa/Yuichi Takayanagi supervision: "Space Expo 2014 - Challenge of NASA and JAXA -" NHK/NHK Promotion/Asahi Shimbun (2014)

■Written by Yoshitsugu Nittatsu: “Enjoying the history of space development through movies”The Birds(2019)

Text: Takayuki Oguchi

In 1982, he became the director of Japan's first CG production, JCGL. After working as the head designer for the IMAX Dome 3D video "Universe 2 ~Sound of the Sun~" at the Fujitsu Pavilion at EXPO'90, he became a freelance video creator. Won an Emmy Award for the NHK special ``Life: A 4 Billion Year Distant Journey'' (1994). His most recent work is the storyboard for the NHK special ``Space Spectacle'' (19). He is also a video journalist specializing in VFX, CG, 3D movies, art animation, exhibition videos, etc., and has contributed numerous articles to film magazines, theater pamphlets, the web, etc. In addition to being a visiting professor at Digital Hollywood University, he is also a part-time lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Animation Department, Waseda University Faculty of Science and Engineering, Japan Electronics College, Joshibi University of Art and Design Junior College, etc.

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"The Right Stuff"

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