Capricorn One
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Movie Reviews of Capricorn One
Movie Review: I Love this Sci-Fi / Action Adventure Film!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This flick is a lot of fun. Considering they made the film on $5 million dollars, it's even more amazing. And there's quite a few stars from 1970's television and movies, so it's an all-star cast. The film has been preserved in excellent condition. The cinematography is crystal clear throughout. I own the film on DVD and I'll mention the additional features.As you know, the guys were going to Mars when something funny happened. Like their boss asking them to fake the mission. But it's all to save the space agency. Will our heroes cooperate and cover up the fake mission? You gotta order the movie to find out! But here's a few things for you to watch for.
I've never been a big Elliott Gould fan, but I like him here. He's perfect as the conspiracy-nut reporter barely able to keep his job. His boss, David Doyle (Charlie's Angels) is here as a skeptical assignment editor. Karen Black (Airport 1975) loans Gould a beautiful red Datsun 280Z 2+2 after his blue 1965 Mustang goes for a swim. Robert Walden (Lou Grant) is a NASA console operator who makes an issue about the unusual TV signals from the spacecraft. Hal Holbrook is the brother-in-law for James Brolin but I'm not sure you'd invite him to the family reunion after this flick. Sam Waterston (The Killing Fields) and O.J. Simpson (The Naked Gun) are the other two crewman in the spacecraft with Brolin (sure the spacecraft is a bit small to take to Mars, but hey, it's a MOVIE ... just enjoy it).
James Brolin's character (Brubaker) has a bit of a problem with a snake in the desert ... he had a similar problem with a snake in the desert in "Westworld" in 1973 ("Capricorn One" is a 1978 film). Sam Waterston's character likes to tell jokes, though his last joke is a bit ironic. Brenda Vaccaro (Airport '77) is Mrs. Brubaker, James Brolin's movie wife. James B. Sikking ("Hill Street Blues") is here, as are Telly Savalas ("Kojak") and David Huddleston (the mayor from "Blazing Saddles").
Telly Savalas is a crop-duster who helps Caulfield (Elliott Gould) search for the missing astronauts. The chase sequences, especially between two Hughes 500 attack helicopters and a crop-duster plane are just great. The chase sequence is several minutes long and includes some dramatic low-level and close-canyon-wall flying. The camera work for the flying sequences is simply breath-taking. Perfectly executed in my opinion.
Regarding the film, there is a bit of language and a small amount of innuendo, so a PG rating is about right. On the DVD you get optional Spanish subtitles, a teaser and a theatrical trailer, production notes and a bit about the cast and crew. Fortunately, the film is widescreen which is much appreciated during the flying sequences.
This is a great film... Perfect for your collection. Don't let them mislead you on the picture quality; it's very, very good on the DVD I can assure you.
Movie Review: The flight that never got off the ground...
Summary: 5 Stars
Capricorn One is a film that seems to have fallen out of favor over the years but it still holds up as one of the best 70s conspiracy thrillers even if it spends more time as a chase movie than it does on the nuts and bolts of exactly how to fake a space mission from a TV studio in Texas. The chronology also gets a little awkward in the second half as Elliot Gould's cynical reporter uncovers NASA's little game and suddenly finds his brakes tampered with and the feds planting drugs on him for his troubles - you can't help feeling that his suspicions should have been aroused a lot earlier to stop him putting the pieces together a little too quickly and conveniently while at the same time the three astronauts who are only co-operating because their families have been threatened (since O.J. is on the crew it must have been a 2-1 majority decision) and suddenly find themselves excess to requirements spend far too much time on the run in the desert. Not that the interest falters, especially as James Brolin has an increasingly tough time of it, finding himself a playground for scorpions and rattlesnakes while chased by the two most malevolent looking helicopters in screen history that become vividly vulture-like characters of their own. It's extraordinarily well directed by Peter Hyams with a remarkably strong visual sense he's long lost since becoming his own cinematographer and some superb crosscutting, and Jerry Goldsmith's superb driving score is among his very best.
The extras package on the NTSC disc isn't as extensive as Network's recent UK DVD (which includes trailer, vintage production short and 40 minutes of raw behind the scenes footage as well as a superior 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer), being limited to teaser and full trailer and production notes. The transfer isn't as bad as other reviewers make out, although it could stand remastering.
Movie Review: Capricorn One and Executive Action
Summary: 5 Stars
These are both great movies because they shatter the myths of our times.
From fake moon landing to the assassinations of liberals -- and all the way to an appointed president and 9/11 -- we are asked to believe in coincidence rather than conspiracy. Is this conspiracy-free America?
Are we unlike every other nation; a gene pool set apart, free from violence, genocide, desires to enslave? Our true history suggests otherwise.
On the other hand, there is the propaganda of white male history which is the "Dick and Jane" version of reality which denies conspiracy in America.
What of the genocide of the native America? The enslavement of Africans in America? Our CIA run amuck all over the world? Vietnam and today's Iraq-nam. Warprofiteers aren't part of today's reality? There is no Halliburton ripping off our soldiers?
JFK released the seeds of a counter-revolution which, like feminism, continues to spread and grow.
If you want more insight into the struggles for and against democracy in America -- and there are those who consider democracy a threat to their view of the world -- see both of these movies. The original "Executive Action" with Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and a sensational cast, not yet on DVD. And, Capricorn One which is the tale of a moon landing more than 40 years ago which more than likely never happened.
For today and the reality of Global Warming we need yet another movie to shatter the myths of wealth, to question why our natural resources are in the hands of private families? To challenge the value of nature, animal-life, humanity being weighed against the yardstick of a dollar bill.
Capricorn One -- with a great cast -- is a cult movie for every good reason!! See it.
Movie Review: Outstanding Action Conspiracy Adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the best conspiracy action movies ever filmed. The plot concerning the government faking a manned mission to Mars and a down and out reporter trying to expose the conspiracy is really quite simple. But it is the energy of the script, convincing performances, an outstanding Jerry Goldsmith score and just the plain audacity that a government would even try to pull off such a hoax that gets the viewers' blood boiling. O.J. Simpson, Sam Waterston and James Brolin are excellent as the three beleaguered astronauts who reluctantly go along with the conspiracy. I cannot think of a more diverse trio of actors to play these astronauts but they really make this film convincing. Elliott Gould as the reporter is perfectly cast bringing his best attributes to that role. Telly Savalas almost steals this film with a very colorful performance as an open cockpit pilot who helps Elliott Gould track down the astronauts while being chased by machine gun firing helicopters hot on his heels through curvaceous ravines. This sequence is an extremely exciting. This is director Peter Hyams' best film to date. The one cohesive element that really stands out is Jerry Goldsmith's powerhouse of a theme that literally drives the action and the drama and hits a responsive emotional chord that I remember to this day.Movie Review: Believable
Summary: 5 Stars
After learning from a friend who gets intelligence briefings from several agencies and departments of the US government that the attacks on 9/11 were directed by the Bush administration (not unlike the Operation Northwoods scenario offered Kennedy in 1962 by the JCS as a pretext for going to war with Cuba, only difference being that Kennedy turned down the JCS's scenario), I cannot say anymore that the basic premise behind this movie is unbelievable. A faked manned landing on Mars would surely be easier to pull-off than 9/11. The whole conspiracy begins to fall apart in the movie when a NASA technician discovers that the television/audio signals are coming in faster than the telemetry signals from the craft! Without realizing the implications of this inconsistency, the technician matter-of-factly tells a reporter friend. When the NASA technician goes missing, the reporter investigates (maybe one day some reporter from a major newspaper/media outlet will have the courage to interview former FBI translater Sibel Edmonds and learn about the intercepts the FBI had as of April 2001 detailing the exact scenario that took place on 9/11.) Quite an enjoyable movie. The real world, however, is more dangerous than most people realize.