Notable cast/crew: Elliott Gould as Robert Caulfield. James Brolin as Charles Brubaker. Brenda Vaccaro as Kay Brubaker. Sam Waterston as Peter Willis. O J Simpson as John Walker. Hal Holbrook as Dr James Kelloway. Karen Black as Judy Drinkwater. Telly Savalas as Albain. David Huddleston as Hollis Peaker. David Doyle as Walter Loughlin. Original music by Jerry Goldsmith.
Running time: 123 minutesDirector: Peter Hyams
Verdict: This is something of a forgotten classic of the conspiracy genre. It featured a tremendous cast with numerous Academy Award nominees. While a bit thin on characterization, it makes up for it in riveting plot. This was the most successful independent film of 1977 for good reason. Right from the outset, the bold beats of Jerry Goldsmith's score (which he would pay homage to in his Star Trek film work) set the mood that something is off.
Brolin is easily the best of the astronauts as the other two are given very little to work with. He and Holbrook carry the first half of the film. The latter half is mostly Gould with very strong cameos from Doyle and Savalas. None of the supporting cast are bad, in fact, they all stand out in their brief moments, but aside from maybe Vaccaro, they are peripheral to the rest of the story.
The conspiracy aspect is very much of a piece from the late 70s, post-Watergate. The idea of a faked Mars landing is not that far-fetched, and how it is handled here is a little too plausible given the distrust in government we see today. It's a little unclear as to how much time elapses from the time the astronauts go on the run, and there is some ambiguity as to whether the plan was always to kill them or if the other two were even actually killed (likely, given how they tried to kill Brubaker on the plane). That ambiguity feeds into the sense of unease and paranoia and works to the film's advantage.
The stunt work is terrific from Gould's out of control car to the helicopter/airplane chase. For an independent film, there were no corners cut. They even wrangled actual equipment from NASA for the Martian soundstage scenes.
They don't make action-packed conspiracy films like this with a big name cast any more.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
Brolin is easily the best of the astronauts as the other two are given very little to work with. He and Holbrook carry the first half of the film. The latter half is mostly Gould with very strong cameos from Doyle and Savalas. None of the supporting cast are bad, in fact, they all stand out in their brief moments, but aside from maybe Vaccaro, they are peripheral to the rest of the story.
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| I love the taste of rattlesnake in the morning |
The stunt work is terrific from Gould's out of control car to the helicopter/airplane chase. For an independent film, there were no corners cut. They even wrangled actual equipment from NASA for the Martian soundstage scenes.
They don't make action-packed conspiracy films like this with a big name cast any more.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
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