Capricorn One (1970 something)

[lester1/2jr]

  Well,  I liked this better than "the parrelax view".  It's yet more of your nixon era paranoia government is vast and powerful stuff.  In this case, the old "moon landing was fake"  conspiracy theory is the possible inspiration.  Wait, before I go on  OJ is in this.  When are we going to have a serious OJ Simpson filmography around here?  what kind of movie site is this.

            He has like 2 lines, even though he's one of the main characters.  guess they didn't have much faith in his acting ability.  So the guys are supposed to go to Mars.  Instead they get sucked in to a NASA guys scheme to fund space exploration despite growing public disenchantment. 


      it's a cool enough idea, and you can't help but think of the Iraq war in places, as the men wonder if it's the right thing to do to lie to keep the space program, a noble endevour,  funded.

    Unfortunetly,  elements of the film haven't held up that well.  First,  Elliot Gould is annoying.  His scenes generally detract from the film, though he comes to life briefly in a scene featuring a great telly sevalas cameo.    Also,  as in often the case with these movies,   we have to keep in mind not only the limited technology of the era, but the relative amateur...ness of hollywood in tying loose ends together in conspiracy type plots.  Obviously, the standards for this were much lower then.  This is not "Flightplan", much less "The Game" here. 

      it wasn't bad though. 

[soylentgreen]

Man...I LOVE this movie.  It's got that preposterous quality that only 1970 conspiracy thrillers had...not to mention one of Jerry Goldsmiths quintessential scores from that decade.

Elliot Gould did have that whiny 70s malaise quality(perhaps a residue from his stint as a me-decade Philip Marlowe in Altman's THE LONG GOODBYE?), but it's off-set nicely by some great little scenes with Karen Black. 

The scene with Gould being berated by David Doyle as his exasperated boss is hilarious. Telly "Pervert!" Savalas steals the cropduster scenes, despite some great aerial photography.

...and that monologue Hal Holbrook delivers - "We had the mother of all screwups!" -  is just priceless.  Holbrook sells it! 

[lester1/2jr]

is that the speech he gave when he was first telling them about the whole thing?  In that room?  that was dope.  kubrick-like and about where the quality started to drop off