Space Cowboys

This was a fun movie. That's really all you need to know.

Of course, what sort of critic would I be if I didn't elaborate on that point? Not a professional one that's for certain. I will go on however, not because of any kind of code of reviewing ethics or something like that, but because the movie was a lot of fun and deserves mention.

The movie starts in the 1950s in black and white. The experimental X-2 jet is on a test run with a couple of the Air Force's best test pilots on board. These are young men we see, but the voices are clearly those of the movie's elder stars. That makes for a strange experience, hearing the voices of older actors emerging from the mouths of young actors. Any way, the X-2 is pushed to its absolute limits and crashes. The pilots safely eject and get back to their base to find their commander has a nasty surprise. NASA has been formed to take over for the Air Force. Their time in the sun is over.

Flash forward to present time where NASA learns that a Russian communications satellite's orbit is decaying and it will burn up in the atmosphere if not helped. The former Air Force commander (James Cromwell), now a high ranking NASA official, steps in and orders it fixed. The Russians are practically begging for help as the loss of the satellite would wreck their communications. Unfortunately the satellite is so old that nobody knows how to fix it. They notice that the computer design is the same as from the US space station SkyLab so they call up the original designer. That happens to be one of those test pilots, played by Clint Eastwood.

To make a long story short, Eastwood's character convinces NASA to send him and his old team up to fix the satellite because no one else can. At this point the movie settles in and focuses on entertaining its audience.

Eastwood must go and collect his former team, Tommy Lee Jones as the other pilot, Donald Sutherland as the engineer and James Garner as the navigator. This is an experienced group of actors and that is put to good use. A good portion of the movie focuses on their training for the mission. They know that they could be quickly dumped for health reasons so they put their minds to work filling in the holes from their physical failings.

These four actors work extremely well together. It was easy to believe that they have known and worked together for many years. They took a lot of ribbing from the younger astronauts over their age but they quickly turned the tables by showing the advantages of wisdom and experience.

I admit I'm a big sucker for movies about space exploration, the more realistic the better. A lot of the movie hinged on these guys getting that one last chance to go into space. As someone who would kill for the chance to go into space, that theme rang very true. I could easily empathize with what they were trying to do.

That helped a lot because for this movie to work, the audience must be able to suspend disbelief to a degree. The idea that NASA would launch a shuttle mission with such limited information is hard to believe. Add to that the fact that most of the crew would be old enough to collect Social Security and you have a ludicrous scenario. That made the actors' performances critical. A group of lesser actors would never have successfully pulled this off. But pull it off they do and make the movie touching and frequently very funny.

I saw this movie in a packed house with what appeared to be a mostly middle aged crowd. They absolutely loved it. I suspect this movie will continue to perform strongly at the box office with good word of mouth. Now I've officially added my own good word to that buzz.

- John Shea