Space Cowboys
Short description
Four US Air Force test pilots were picked for the Daedalus programme in 1958 and expected to become the country's first men in space, until NASA took over and sent trained chimpanzees instead. Roughly forty years later, an ageing Soviet communications satellite drifts out of its orbit and threatens to come down over populated ground. Its guidance system was designed by Frank Corvin, one of those pilots, so he is the only person who can fix it. He agrees to go, on the condition that his three old crewmates come with him, and the men submit to a training regime built for candidates decades younger.
Clint Eastwood directed and produced the film, the twenty-second of the forty he has directed in chronological order, following True Crime and preceding Blood Work, from a screenplay by Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner. Eastwood plays Corvin, with Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner as the other veterans, and James Cromwell and Marcia Gay Harden in supporting roles. Warner Bros. Pictures released it in August 2000; it runs 130 minutes.
Made for about 65 million USD, the film returned roughly 129 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.5/10 from around 91,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.4/10 from about 1,600 votes. A critics' rating of 6.8/10 from 120 reviews places it slightly above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Initially, Clint Eastwood refused to direct the film, considering the script too implausible. He changed his mind in 1998 when 77-year-old astronaut John Glenn flew into space.
- Initially, Sean Connery was supposed to play Jerry O'Neil, and Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of Tank Sullivan. Ultimately, these roles were played by Donald Sutherland and James Garner, respectively.
- The filming was difficult for the actors: 72-year-old James Garner, for example, broke his arm.
- The film uses real footage shot in space.
- According to editor Joel Cox, Clint Eastwood, accustomed to working very quickly, shot 35-40 takes a day.
- Clint Eastwood composed a musical theme that plays at the beginning of the film. It was eventually included in the overall soundtrack created by composer Lennie Niehaus.
- Filming caused health problems for some actors: James Garner suffered a shoulder injury, and Donald Sutherland injured his knee.
- NASA blueprints of the actual Mission Control Center were used in constructing the sets for Mission Control.
- Clint Eastwood was initially supposed to produce and star in the film, with someone else directing. However, when several directors who were offered the job decided that filming spaceflights would be difficult and declined, Eastwood decided to direct the film himself.
- As the orbital spacecraft approaches the John F. Kennedy Space Center, a double sonic boom can be heard (when breaking the sound barrier). It is double because the spacecraft creates two shock waves – from the nose and the tail.
- According to the special effects supervisor, Adam Savage, they chose 'Rolo' candy wrappers through trial and error to simulate gold foil.
- In actual shuttles, the seats are arranged in two rows (four in the front and two in the back), but Clint Eastwood wanted to show a different seat configuration and, accordingly, the characters in them.
- The filmmakers, led by Clint Eastwood, initially thought they would need forty special effects shots. In reality, around three hundred special effects shots were included in the film.
- In the scenes of the shuttle landing, Clint Eastwood used archival footage of 'space shuttle' landings.
- NASA offered its special fixed-wing aircraft for filming (it provides short-term exposure to near-weightlessness, is used to train astronauts, conduct research, and film movies) – in 1995, it was used during the filming of Ron Howard's science fiction drama "Apollo 13." Clint Eastwood declined the offer, fearing that the older actors would become too ill during the flight and would no longer be able to perform.
- The original script mentioned the deployment of weapons systems in orbit (the so-called "IKON" project). NASA demanded that the script be rewritten, not wanting to be associated with the militarization of space.
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