No Assombroso Mundo da Lua

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...

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.

A comment on "Marooned", the movie that was made about a moon mission disaster which was released after the Apollo 11 landing but prior to the Apollo 13 real-life disaster, mentioned that the movie is not available on DVD and rarely, if ever, appears on television. I believe that the same is true of this movie (at least regards TV screenings) and it's for the same reason. "Marooned" and "Countdown" are movies that are so much of their period that they scarcely make any sense at all to 21st Century minds. Of course, we all know about the Cold War, and most cold war movies involve international espionage which is timeless.

Countdown is a movie about the Space Race which dominated the daily agenda at least as much as conventional Cold War conflicts like the Korean and Vietnam wars. The plot concerns a situation in which the Soviets succeeded in their aim to send a manned rocket to the Moon before the Americans were ready to fly Apollo. However, contact with the cosmonauts has been lost, and there is still a chance for NASA to fulfill Kennedy's challenge of "sending a man to the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" - as well as the kudos gained from discovering and being the ones to tell the Soviets what happened to their men.

An interesting sideline on this is that the actually successful method of moon exploration used, ie send three men to lunar orbit and then two can travel to the surface in a smaller ship, is certainly not the only solution, and this movie explores a different one forced by necessity. Since Apollo is not ready and there is no lunar lander capable of taking off from the moon, why not send a less complex ship with only one man, and let him stay on the moon, kept alive by an environment habitat sent on ahead by unmanned rocket and by provision of supplies by further unmanned ships? Such a scenario had already been envisioned by science fiction authors like Arthur C. Clarke as being the most efficient way to explore our satellite. Certainly nobody had previously imagined that we would send men to the Moon for a matter of a few days in a ship which could not carry more than a few hundred pounds of samples back to Earth. By exploring this other methodology this movie succeeds in highlighting the true nature of our Lunar adventure. The point was not to expand the human frontier or to increase the sum of scientific knowledge - the point was to get a man on the moon and safely back before the Russians did.

James Caan and Robert Duvall starred in a bunch of films together. This one shows them landing on the moon, two years before we actually did. President Kennedy had challenged the U.S. scientists to get us to the moon before the russians, not because it was easy, but because it was hard, and would challenge us to meet the best of our skills and abilities. Ted Knight is in here as "Walter", a couple years before Mary Tyler Moore. also small, uncredited appearances by Mike Farrell and William Conrad. suspense and adventure. just before it happened in real life. some added competition between the astronauts, which probably wasn't really there. i get that so much was unknown at this point, but they have added in arguing and competition where there probably wasn't. who knows. it's okay. Directed by Robert Altman, who had been repeatedly nominated for an oscar, and received it for a lifetime achievement of inspiring work .... think M*A*S*H.

The Americans and Russians are in a race to the moon. For political reasons, Air Force pilot Robert Duvall is replaced by civilian James Caan as the astronaut for the mission. This leads to personal conflicts between the two and general doubts about whether Caan can pull the mission off. Director Robert Altman's space drama is a mostly unimpressive, static effort. If I didn't know better I would assume it was made-for-TV. Lacking in special effects and choosing instead to focus on the personal drama between the various parties involved in the space program, it can be a tough slog at times. It's very dry and has long stretches where it's boring. It's also lacking in the kind of suspense necessary for a story about a race to the moon. Anti-climactic ending doesn't help, either. If you're a fan of movies about the space program perhaps you should check it out. Otherwise I can't recommend it.