Stuff

Listening to Claire de Lune the other day reminded me of something.

I never quite liked the movie The Right Stuff.

It's not that there's that much wrong with it. It's not quite the movie of the book, though, and that means it's little more than a docudrama about a few years in the early United States space program. And as the book ends rather abruptly after some specific incidents, this means that the movie does, too.

I picked up the book a while back, and it's well worth while. Not only does it get across what was happened as the United States tried to catch up with the Soviets,  it includes historical context in an interesting and accessible way. A particular example is how "Our Rockets Always Blow Up." In the early 1950s, the United States' rockets had been having a problem getting off the ground. With those five words, Tom Wolfe is able to remind the reader that there are problems compared to the Soviet Union that were not being solved, that it was a big deal, and most of what the problem was: That  vehicles for lifting masses to orbit or even sub-orbital heights didn't work. (I haven't been able to confirm it, but the plot of the first James Bond film Dr. No - wherein an evil mastermind blows up U.S. rockets - sounds like it's related to the same issue.)

The movie, meanwhile, simply tells the story in the book.  This loses some of this historical context, although it is reintroduced where possible. In some cases it can get the meaning across by taking advantage of film as a visual medium. And the shot of the astronauts advancing is iconic. Still, it loses the near-gonzo feel of the source, which doesn't shy away from how pilots did their jobs ("flying and drinking and drinking and driving") and what perquisites they also indulged in. The straight presentation of the movie makes it much more sterile and less interesting.