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Everything, but the lassoes...
Aug. 12th, 2000 10:40 amI went with Lee to go see Space Cowboys last night. On the way there, we headed full tilt toward a massive, dark cloud that did a wonderful "Hi, I'm a huge living thing" impression, edging slowly across the landscape, pushing some wispy, lighter-gray clouds ahead of it and belching lightning at us like an old, sputtering strobe light.
We got to the theater just as the wind one usually associates with the leading edge of such storms started to blow. We bought our tickets, went inside, made the customary contribution to the refreshment stand gods, and sat down to wait for the feature. The movie started a few minutes late to allow the storm, or at least its most violent part, to pass.
How was I attracted to this movie? Let me count the ways. The casting of Clint Eastwood, James Garner, Tommy Lee Jones, and Donald Sutherland together in one movie was enough. That the story line ties in with what I do for a living (exploring space) was both an attractant and a repellant.
It was attractive because it deals with what I do for a living. Many of the places shown in the film are places that are familiar to me. For example, the scene (shown in the trailers), where Bob Gerson (played by James Cromwell) chases Eastwood's character down to tell him that he'll agree to Eastwood's proposal to send Clint and the rest of his Daedalus teammates into space was shot in the lobby of Building 30, where I have been known to hang out.
However, the movie made me wince - a little - every time the facts were sacrificed to make the story line flow more smoothly or make more sense to the average moviegoer. It made suspension of disbelief progressively harder for me.
Anyone who works with computers has experienced similar twinges when watching dramas that have people doing silly, stupid, illogical, or just plain impossible things with computers. I suppose cops feel the same way while watching crime stories, etc. In general, it's probably a good thing, since the real details of working in a space program, or with computers, or in a police precinct would likely bore everyone not involved in such activities to tears.
In short, it's a practical example of H.H. Munro's pithy observation, that `a little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.'
Nevertheless, I found Space Cowboys to be an engaging entertainment, and despite its seeming shallowness as a bunch-of-lovable-oddballs-save-the-day kind of story, I found some substance underneath the veneer.
Lee says she came away from the movie depressed, and I can see her point. In an earnest attempt to avoid posting spoilers, I'll only say that I found the last scene not so much depressing as poignant, and it will stick in my mind for a while, because in the final analysis, that scene - along with the rest of the movie - can be viewed as a tribute to the human spirit. When all is said and done, these guys don't just end up saving the day, they redeem themselves, despite the odds and the `slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,' as Will S. so eloquently put it.
And by extension, in doing so they hold out the possibility that we, too, have the "right stuff."
Cheers...
We got to the theater just as the wind one usually associates with the leading edge of such storms started to blow. We bought our tickets, went inside, made the customary contribution to the refreshment stand gods, and sat down to wait for the feature. The movie started a few minutes late to allow the storm, or at least its most violent part, to pass.
How was I attracted to this movie? Let me count the ways. The casting of Clint Eastwood, James Garner, Tommy Lee Jones, and Donald Sutherland together in one movie was enough. That the story line ties in with what I do for a living (exploring space) was both an attractant and a repellant.
It was attractive because it deals with what I do for a living. Many of the places shown in the film are places that are familiar to me. For example, the scene (shown in the trailers), where Bob Gerson (played by James Cromwell) chases Eastwood's character down to tell him that he'll agree to Eastwood's proposal to send Clint and the rest of his Daedalus teammates into space was shot in the lobby of Building 30, where I have been known to hang out.
However, the movie made me wince - a little - every time the facts were sacrificed to make the story line flow more smoothly or make more sense to the average moviegoer. It made suspension of disbelief progressively harder for me.
Anyone who works with computers has experienced similar twinges when watching dramas that have people doing silly, stupid, illogical, or just plain impossible things with computers. I suppose cops feel the same way while watching crime stories, etc. In general, it's probably a good thing, since the real details of working in a space program, or with computers, or in a police precinct would likely bore everyone not involved in such activities to tears.
In short, it's a practical example of H.H. Munro's pithy observation, that `a little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.'
Nevertheless, I found Space Cowboys to be an engaging entertainment, and despite its seeming shallowness as a bunch-of-lovable-oddballs-save-the-day kind of story, I found some substance underneath the veneer.
Lee says she came away from the movie depressed, and I can see her point. In an earnest attempt to avoid posting spoilers, I'll only say that I found the last scene not so much depressing as poignant, and it will stick in my mind for a while, because in the final analysis, that scene - along with the rest of the movie - can be viewed as a tribute to the human spirit. When all is said and done, these guys don't just end up saving the day, they redeem themselves, despite the odds and the `slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,' as Will S. so eloquently put it.
And by extension, in doing so they hold out the possibility that we, too, have the "right stuff."
Cheers...
