Review: Space Cowboys (2000)
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, James Garner, James Cromwell, Marcia Gay Harden, William Devane, Loren Dean. Writers: Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner. Director: Clint Eastwood.
Review by Scott Hunt Movie Hunt: http://netdirect.net/~hunt/index.html
Rating: Near Miss (2 out of 4 stars)
Make no mistake about it, Space Cowboys succeeds due to the varying iconic levels of three of its main leads; Eastwood, Jones and Sutherland. Over the years, each man has arguably put a distinctive stamp on American cinema. Dropped into the unsurprising, yet satisfying Space Cowboys, their strength of personality lends the film it's best moments. The script has no real unexpected moments and doesn't seek to blast you with over the top special effects. It's quite simply a fun movie that's as enjoyable as a home cooked meal.
The script pleasingly plays off the respective star's real life and film images with varying degrees of success. Eastwood's first moments on the screen, he's seen working in his garage, listening to jazz music, a nod to his real life devotion to the music form. Sutherland spends much of the film flashing his trademark loopy grin. It's that crafty smile we've seen time and again in films such as M.A.S.H and Backdraft. Jones plays off his acerbic, gruff screen persona to great effect, eliciting a pathos from his role that is truly bittersweet. Garner, by comparison, has a certain fuzziness to his character. His inclusion and role feels more like an afterthought than an integral part of the film.
Frank Corvin (Eastwood), "Hawk" Hawkins (Jones), Jerry O'Neil (Sutherland) and "Tank" Sullivan (Garner) are first shown as young men in 1958. They are Team Daedalus, the country's top Air Force pilots. In a gorgeously filmed black and white flashback, rebellious Hawk and rigid leader Frank are seen test piloting a jet plane, soaring high enough to see the moon, despite the blazing daytime sun. In a nice reference to Greek mythology, like Daedalus' son Icarus, they fly too high and come crashing to the earth. They have seen their prize, the moon, and both men dream of someday visiting it.
Flash forward to modern day NASA. There is a crisis involving a satellite of Corvin's design. It's in decaying orbit and falling towards earth. The only solution is an in-flight repair and Corvin is the only man who can do it. Realizing his strong negotiating chip, Corvin leverage's his way into Team Daedelus making the space trip.
Most of the film's heart beats in the pre-flight training the geriatrics must endure. There is an easy camaraderie between the stars and the tone of the film slides into an almost TV sitcom-like quality. Due to Eastwood's deliberate directing hand, the scenes play more sweetly amusing than cloying. Frank and Hawk, despite their age, get into a bar fight that plays like siblings venting life long grievances. The "Aw, Mom, we weren't doing nuthin'" looks they give a team supervisor upon explaining their shiners shows the actor's strength through subtlety. Hawk, sans computer assistance, shows two young, hotshot astronauts, how pilots flew in the old days. Jerry, with the practiced subtlety of a snake charmer, hits on any women within range of his droopy shouldered, coke bottle thick, be speckled sight. Eastwood sends the message that old means nothing more than wiser, maybe a bit smarter and still sexually potent.
There's almost an audible grate of metal on metal as the second half of the film grinds gears from a character driven focus to adventure. Although beautifully realized visually, the space rescue is truly unremarkable. Nothing occurs that we haven't seen in other recent films involving space travel. By shifting from the film's strong suit, its leads, to straightforward action, a certain momentum is lost.
If you're not looking for any big revelations or insight into the human condition, this is a movie for you. Space Cowboys doesn't try to present itself as anything other than what it is: Fun, eminently watchable, summer fare.
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