Objectif Lune

A moving and exciting space opera with great cast , adequate production design and nail-biting final scenes . Concerning the preparatives, training , emotional crises affecting the men and their families and mutual competence between two astronautas : James Caan, Robert Duvall. At the end there is a bone-crushing last reel that will have on the edge of your seat .The motion picture that puts a man on the moon ... and you will follow every terrifying second of the way...From the director of The Player and Nashville comes a screen space adventure that's the Real Suff .

This is the personal drama of the man fate picked to live the great adventure of the century , resulting to be a nice thriller/drama/Scifi with overlapping dialogue , dealing with American astronauts being rushed out to the moon in an attempt to beat the Russians. This is a drama more than a thriller , concentrating less on Sci-Fi hardware than on emotional crises affecting the men and their families . Here there are three major talents connected with this science-fiction thriller , as Robert Altman , and Robert Duvall , James Caan went on to appear together in The " Godfather" by Francis Ford Coppola and " Killer Elite" by Sam Peckinpah , while director went on his own fame and fortune , all of them : Duvall, Caan, Altman were all on the theshold of their hugely successful careers . Moreover , including a rousing and twisted finale that will leave you breathless. Starring duo are well accompanied by a very good support cast , such as : Steve Inhat , Joanna Moore, Barbara Baxley, Michael Murphy , Charles Aidman and uncredited actor/producer William Conrad as a TV newscaster , among others.

It contains an atmospheric and functional cinematography by William Spencer. As well as a rousing and suspenseful musical score by Leonard Rosenman in Jerry Goldsmith style .This is most uncharacteristic of its filmmaker and the ethereal qualities of his later work, though being slightly soapy in parts . This one was made before MASH and subsequently Altman to develop a prolific and successful career . After his television works , first film's Altman was in 1957 The James Dean Story , following this Countdown 1967 , the big hit MASH and a series of successes and some flops , such as : That Cold Day in the Park, McCabe and Mrs Miller , Images , The Long Goodbye , Thieves like us , California Split , Nashville , Buffalo Bill and the Indians , 3 Women , A Wedding , A perfect Couple , Health , Quintet, Popeye , Secret Honor , Streamers , Fool for Love , Beyond Therapy , Aria , Short Cuts , Kansas City, The Gingerbread Man , Dr T and the women , Gosford Park, The Company , among others .

I've just got to throw my 2 cents in. I thought the Countdown was an excellent movie. The acting is what carries it for sure, but the special effects aren't bad either for the time period.

I've seen Apollo 13 with Hanks and I thought this picture did a better job of portraying tension, ( although fictitious ) within the capsule. Robert Duvall is a superior actor as is James Caan. The overall dismay he portrays when not picked for the mission, and the subsiquent attempt to discredit Caan is great acting!

COUNTDOWN stars James Caan as Lee Stegler, a civilian, who is chosen at the last minute to replace a career astronaut (Robert Duvall) for a moon mission. It's during the heat of the great "space race" between the USA and the USSR, and politicians have decided that a non-military representative must be chosen.

After an eternity of training, squabbling, and other padding, Stegler finally blasts off, only to find himself in a dangerous situation.

Mr. Caan is believable in his role, as is Mr. Duvall, whose character -somewhat- prefigures his role in THE GREAT SANTINI. The animus that his character shows toward Stegler feels like a genuinely bruised ego.

Not a bad science fiction film that may seem sort of hokey to modern audiences who have no idea how exciting this superpower rivalry actually was...

It's interesting that I initially had the same reaction as "anonymous" did to the lunar lander depicted in the movie. Sure, it looks like a Gemini capsule stuck on top of a descent stage, but guess what? When Altman made this movie, NASA actually had already planned the "Countdown" mission AND the Gemini lunar lander, although it was never used.

BTW, I read Hank Searl's book "The Pilgrim Project" while I was in eighth grade and loved it.

Mostly good, solid, well acted (especially by Robert Duvall and James Caan) story of behind the scenes politics among astronauts as we raced Russia towards the moon in the late 1960s.

Gets a little soapy at times, some of the politics and science seem a little cheated, and key incidents are convenient and co-incidental. Production values, especially the special effects, are pretty weak. And Caan's astronaut is a little too open with his fears to be believed as a man of his position at that moment in history.

On the other hand it's impressive that in 1969 someone made a space movie focusing on complex emotions and human behavior, not technology. The climax is a bit 'Hollywood', although at least a little more bittersweet than usual, if predictable (and a cheat). The small roles are well cast and played. Not really recognizably an Altman film, but certainly shows talent and is worth seeing.