Capricorn One...

[Warped9]

Capricorn One (1978)

A faked Mars landing goes wrong and the three astronauts have to disappear.

This is a fun and pretty cool film inspired by the moon landing conspiracy ideas. Stars James Brolin, Elliot Gould, Hal Holbrook, Sam Waterston, O.J. Simpson, Brenda Vacarro, Telly Savalas and a host of fun character actors. Watched this today with Dad and we both enjoyed it. I haven't seen this film since in the theatre in 1978 and it's still a good one. Elliot Gould's exchanges with David Doyle are good fun and Telly Savalas is a riot. The black helicopters are used effectively liked two huge unfeeling, malevolent insects. Part of the thrill in this movie is what they don't show and leave to your imagination.

I recommend this one.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

I caught this film a few years back, and enjoyed it. It was almost ahead of it's time given that the fringe conspiracy theorists who believe the moon landing was faked didn't gain much attention before the invention of the Internet.

 

[MacLeod]

Now that's a film I haven't seen in a while. I believe they are doing a remake and if not knowing Hollywood they soon will.

 

[Warped9]

I believe they are doing a remake and if not knowing Hollywood they soon will.

Hard to imagine what a remake could bring to this story. It isn't about f/x. It's a suspense thriller much more than science fiction. The film does underline that today's sense of pervasive cynicism has actually been with us for a long time and really got rolling in the '70s. While not quite on the same level it is in the vein of films like Three Days Of The Condor, Network, All The Presidents Men and Chinatown.

 

[Shatinator]

I noticed a Special Edition DVD was released about a year ago on this film, wonder what it offered. Good film, I have the original DVD release.

The
S H A T I N A T O R

 

[Klaus]

It was fun (I also saw it in the theaters) and if course the OJ factor is now a creepy bonus. It was the first evil black choppers trope afaik... The only issue is believing that they wouldn't think of the lightspeed delay problem after going to such lengths to fake it, never bought that. NASA, not surprisingly, was not amused and did nothing to help the production.

 

[Disruptor]

It was fun (I also saw it in the theaters) and if course the OJ factor is now a creepy bonus. It was the first evil black choppers trope afaik... The only issue is believing that they wouldn't think of the lightspeed delay problem after going to such lengths to fake it, never bought that. NASA, not surprisingly, was not amused and did nothing to help the production.

I guess wikipedia lies then...

To stay within the budget, NASA's cooperation was needed. Lazarus had a good relationship with the space agency from Futureworld. The filmmakers were thus able to obtain government equipment as props despite the negative portrayal of the space agency, including a prototype lunar module. The film was originally scheduled to debut in February 1978, but good preview screenings and delays in Superman caused it to move to June. Capricorn One became the year's most-successful independent film

I like Karen Black talking about Gould wanting to "jump" her.

Also, Hal Holbrook exceeds at playing villains who really believe they are doing the right thing.

 

[Warped9]

Yeah, you can note a lot of shortcuts taken to get on with the story. It's understandable to a large extent because the story isn't meant to be heavy on the science fiction aspect. In a way it's rather like an X-Files type story but played out on the big screen long before The X-Files as a series comes along.

I watched another film of that era this afternoon: The Final Countdown from 1980. This one in some respects hasn't aged as well. There are good things in it, but it comes across as kind of plodding. As neat as some of the footage is there's too much time spent showing aircraft carrier operations as well as aircraft flybys. This is another one I hadn't seen since first in theatre and watching it now it reminds me of so many time travel stories we got in Trek over the years. The USS Nimitz's captain even kind of made me think of Picard in TNG's early seasons. This is a story that could conceivably benefit from being remade.

 

[arch101]

Let's not forget another great Jerry Goldsmith score. Y'know, with a bigger budget, they could have plugged the obvious scientific holes in the film. Of course Apollo hardware couldn't possibly do a single stage to Mars. However, Von Braun's follow-on rocket would have made use of some Apollo hardware to do a Mars mission.

 

[Admiral2]

I watched another film of that era this afternoon: The Final Countdown from 1980. This one in some respects hasn't aged as well. There are good things in it, but it comes across as kind of plodding. As neat as some of the footage is there's too much time spent showing aircraft carrier operations as well as aircraft flybys.

For naval ethusiasts, these were the best scenes in the film.

 

[Klaus]

Well I must have misremembered it then lol, wouldn't want to argue with Wikipedia!

 

[Mysterion]

I watched another film of that era this afternoon: The Final Countdown from 1980. This one in some respects hasn't aged as well. There are good things in it, but it comes across as kind of plodding. As neat as some of the footage is there's too much time spent showing aircraft carrier operations as well as aircraft flybys.

For naval ethusiasts, these were the best scenes in the film.

Agreed. Gotta love seeing those F-14s in their prime! Especially going up against Zeroes.

 

[Warped9]

I watched another film of that era this afternoon: The Final Countdown from 1980. This one in some respects hasn't aged as well. There are good things in it, but it comes across as kind of plodding. As neat as some of the footage is there's too much time spent showing aircraft carrier operations as well as aircraft flybys.

For naval ethusiasts, these were the best scenes in the film.

Agreed. Gotta love seeing those F-14s in their prime! Especially going up against Zeroes.

While it might have looked fine in 1980 today that footage as shown impressed me as rather static.


The twist to The Final Countdown as opposed to a Trek time travel story is that there's no Starfleet non-interference directive as a guideline. And yet in some respects I think that issue got short thrift in the movie. It was touched upon, but in such a low-key way. The one idea that intrigued me was how people in the 1940s would have perceived the sudden appearance of 1980s tech and hardware. It would have seemed nearly like alien technology to them.

 

[WillsBabe]

Great film, and I remember really enjoying reading the film tie in as well, back in the day.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Classic post-Nixon era government paranoia thriller with a Sci-Fi twist.

Recommended. #

Ah, yes, and the soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith kind of rocked:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIFSKotYdZ0

 

[Warped9]

Good stuff in the film as well as good score. I've already mentioned I love how they used the black helicopters in such a faceless way. I rather liked the Learjet and have always thought it was a neat design to adapt for some kind of futuristic shuttlecraft. And they managed to belly land it without trashing it completely. Telly Savalas keeps repeating a line that works as cautionary advice for whenever things get hot: "Keep your goddamn head down." Brubaker (James Brolin) in his exhausted state must had the shit scared out of him just hanging onto that biplane wing while Savalas was trying to shake the helicopters---excellent stuff! I found the arial stunts in this film quite believable which I suspect likely wouldn't be the case today if the film was remade---yeah, thats years of cynicism talking.

 

[Vendikarr]

I found the arial stunts in this film quite believable which I suspect likely wouldn't be the case today if the film was remade---yeah, thats years of cynicism talking.

I agree. Effects these days are about looking cool, not looking real.

 

[Warped9]

I found the arial stunts in this film quite believable which I suspect likely wouldn't be the case today if the film was remade---yeah, thats years of cynicism talking.

I agree. Effects these days are about looking cool, not looking real.

F/x in years gone by were also meant to look exciting, but the fact that they were actual physical stunts imposed a measure of limitation to pushing the envelope. I recall watching this sequence on the big screen and when the biplane would dive over a cliff into a canyon my stomach flipped around as the camera seemed to be mounted to the biplane itself and thus I followed that pov.

The other thing I thought of was when the helicopter tried bumping the biplane's wing. I thought that just as dangerous for the helicopter because if the biplane just happened to suddenly flip over it could have taken the helicopter with it.

 

[propita]

My father, being employed by JPL during the 60s and 70s, was deeply offended by this movie, believed it implausible to hide a secret of that magnitude, and refused to watch it for many, many years. When he finally DID see it, he was amused (not by much of the acting). He still believed such a huge secret implausible.

That’s what was now amusing to him, since he said there were just too many people/engineers involved who would see right through the pretense as presented onscreen. Example: Immediately upon seeing the Challenger footage of flame out the side of the fuel tank, he said “O-ring failure.” He knew the materials involved and their compositions, and that the leak was at a seam. He even suspected that it was because of the cold. All in 10 seconds after watching the footage. So he figured such a conspiracy was improbable if not impossible. Too many people knowing too much on the subject.

But he had learned enough of the governmental shenanigans to consider conspiracy at a much lower level possible.

 

[Forbin]

Capricorn One struck me as a good concept and 2/3 of a good movie that threw away the interesting part in the third act and dissolved into Just Another Chase Movie.