![]() It’s only a movie, but it’s nevertheless amazing to me the lengths Americans go to avoid exposing their children to the very idea of tragedy. When astronaut Brubaker (Brolin) is presumed dead, his wife (Brenda Vaccaro) goes days without telling their children maybe not until his memorial service. Woodward and Bernstein get mentioned in the same sentence as Patty Hearst by Caulfield’s boss (David Doyle) who is a one-scene wonder if there ever was one. ![]() The Spy Who Loved Measks, and Capricorn One delivers: “When does Allen Funt come out and tell us we’re on Candid Camera?” Mind you, this is the late 1970s, so as much as I know it must have seemed that way at the time, it is fucking unfathomable from today’s perspective. There’s a great deal of discussion about how the end of the Apollo program has caused America to fall behind in world leadership. That might seem like the bare minimum, but it’s amazing what most movies seem to get away with, and Capricorn One makes the absolute most of it. The cinematography and editing are top-notch an expertly paced thrill ride. Maybe he just had the sense to save his good stuff. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is miles ahead of his previous work on Damnation Alley. Every role in the film is played exactly as it should be, from Holbrook’s worn-down former idealist to Gould’s level-headed reporter, Waterston’s deadpan comic relief, and Brolin’s square-jawed determination. It’s even better for doing so in a way that’s sympathetically written, well-acted, good-looking, and downright fun. It’s then up to Caulfield to put the pieces together and find the men before they are claimed either by their government captors or the desert heat.Ĭapricorn One would be good just for overcoming my unease toward conspiracy thrillers. But he escapes his assassination, as do the astronauts, fanning out into the Mojave Desert. This is not without its loose ends, such as the man’s reporter friend Robert Caulfield (Elliot Gould, who, looks and talent nonwithstanding, could only have been a leading man in the 1970s), who is nearly killed himself when NASA sabotages his car. When a technician (Robert Walden) raises questions about the communications readings, he’s disappeared, presumably murdered, and then methodically erased from the historical record. It’s a passionate, even sympathetic offer, and one the astronauts can’t refuse, as NASA is willing to go to some surprising lengths to keep the hoax secret.īut of course they go too far. But Congress and the general public have sadly lost their taste for the historic importance of space exploration, so to avoid the risk of losing funding, they decide to fake the entire eight-month mission on a soundstage. Secreted away to an abandoned World War II airbase, NASA’s flight director (Hal Holbrook) explains to them that NASA was ripped off by the company that made the life support system for the mission, rendering an actual Mars landing impossible. But there’s a problem the men are rushed out of the craft and onto a charter plane while the launch mysteriously continues without them. ![]() Simpson) prepare for the first manned mission to Mars. It’s launch date at Cape Canaveral, as the astronauts of Capricorn One (James Brolin, Sam Waterston, and O.J. It is this understanding that drives the story. ![]() The reality of spurious government conspiracy theories, such as those revolving around the Apollo program which inspired this film, is that they would be impossible to keep secret given the sheer number of people involved, and basically not worth the effort. For the latter, see 1974’s The Parallax View, which expects you to cower in terror before a mildly threatening enemy whose identity, motivations, and goals are never known.Ĭapricorn One feels my pain, and comes up with the perfect solution: a conspiracy that’s a total cock-up. This usually leaves you with a conspiracy that is (a) implausibly all-powerful and infallible, (b) needlessly complicated, (c) makes no sense, and/or (d) isn’t explained at all, but merely shifts the burden of responsibility onto a vague Other. Rather, much like the dreaded Chosen One narrative beloved by hack YA novelists, conspiracy thrillers are easy to write but difficult to make compelling. God knows how much time was spent debating the “merit” of The Da Vinci Code, a pulp novel never meant to provoke the kind of pseudohistorical rumination that it did. ![]() It’s not just the fact that idiots take them seriously. I have a problem with conspiracy thrillers. ![]()
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