L'étoffe des héros

Anyone who has read the book or seen 1983 movie version will be disappointed in this version. I had the privilege of meeting John Glenn in 1997 and he is more like the "Ed Harris" version than the Disney version. The Disney version seems to put more emphasis on the personal lives and flaws of the Mercury 7 than the monumental accomplishments of these men. They were true American heroes...not the hero "wannabes" we see produced by Hollywood and the professional sports industry.

Yet another casualty of the tendency of modern writers being unable to identify with intelligent, educated, accomplished people with initiative. As a result, this iteration all but ignores their skills and accomplishments and instead focuses on portraying them as undisciplined jerks becasue the writers can't distinguish between traits like competitive versus combative, or driven versus reckless. Instead of celebrating the swell of patriotism and technological innovation that occurred during the formation and growth of the space program we instead get a boring melodrama about how white men are jerks, even when they are nice. Were these men perfect? No. People as driven and brazen as them are inherently flawed when it comes to social interaction, but that's not the same as being unruly. The misguided focus is so bad we see nothing depicting the reasons why the Mercury Seven were chosen. It's "look at what a bunch of jerks theses guys are" and suddenly BAM! "We've got our seven". Uh, what? Read the book and watch the film instead. Both captured that time much more faithfully while neither focusing on the astronaut's flaws nor sugar-coating them.

This series is a trip into the Disney Alternate Cinematic Universe where the Mercury astronauts are actually self-absorbed millennial frat boys. I truly believe the the Wolfe book and the 1983 film sat unread and unviewed next to the writer's lap top. You can avoid the rest if you wish.

I've read Tom Wolf's facinating book. And I've watched Philip Kaufman's amazing movie. Both are fantastic. This however, is nothing but a tame school play. The actors all appear to be dead inside, the scenography is cheap and the SFX is all amateurish CGI, that looks outdated already. Do yourself a favour: Read the book, and watch i original movie instead.

Don't expect a thrilling build-up to the USA's first man in space. You have to settle for the inter-relationship squabbles between the astronauts (and spouses) which most of the time comprises conversation with no action. It's a drama which does not make interesting viewing, in fact it's mostly boring.