Rewind: Capricorn One
“A funny thing happened on the way to Mars.”
Inspired by conspiracy theories claiming the Apollo moon landing was faked, 1978′s Capricorn One features something I’ve always wanted to see in a movie: renegade astronauts! NASA is depending on their mission to Mars to revive public and political interest in the space program, but when it’s apparent that the cheapo life support system they bought won’t work properly, they make a desperate move. Col. Brubaker (James Brolin), Lt. Col. Willis (Sam Waterston), and Cmdr. Walker (O.J. Simpson) are pulled from the shuttle minutes before launch and brought to a secret military base in Texas…complete with a Mars stage set! The shuttle is launched as planned and the mission to Mars is completely faked. The astronauts are kept hidden for something like 300 days until the shuttle returns home. But something goes wrong on re-entry and the shuttle burns up. Connect the dots.
Boozing journalist Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould) gets involved when his drinking buddy at NASA tells him about some funny readings which indicate the television transmission is coming from somewhere much more closer than Mars. Caulfield’s investigation sets off a paranoia-fueled chase for the truth that ends with one of the goofiest slow-motion sequences I’ve ever seen. Gould is one of my favorite actors and there really is nobody who can play a smart ass like him (see: The Long Goodbye). O.J. only has about five lines and Brolin is decent in his role as the leader of the renegade astronauts. Telly Savalas has a fucking fantastic small role and watching him and Gould go back and forth gave me douche chills. The movie slows down a lot during the second half, but overall it’s a great piece of ’70s paranoid-thriller. I couldn’t find a shot of Gould from the movie, so here’s one of him circa ’78, looking fresh as always. Check it out on Netflix Watch Instantly or Google Video.
August 30th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
This movie sounds fucking rad, dude. How’d you even come across it?
August 30th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
With Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Sam Waterson, O.J. Simpson, Hal Holbrook, Karen Black, and Telly Savalas in it, how could someone NOT come across it eventually. Rumored re-make in production for next year BTW.
August 30th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
They reported that remake back in like February but I haven’t heard anything about it since. It would actually be pretty sweet to update too.
August 30th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
This is a random question dude, but I remember seeing clips from some British movie. I can’t remember the name, but it was some derivative of “Television” or something, and it’s about some British talk show host who seems to lose his mind and berate his audience in an awesome monologue about how lazy and docile they’ve become from watching the old boob tube. I need to watch it, and I ask only because I get the same awesome 1970′s vibe from this movie.
August 30th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
You might be thinking of “Network.”
August 30th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
You’re fucking rad, dude. Is it as cool as it looked in what I’ve seen?
August 30th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
After having a dream that I walked on the moon I became fascinated with the moon landing and read about this movie and those theories about the moon landing being faked. It upsets me a lot.
August 30th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/photogalleries/apollo-moon-landing-hoax-pictures/
August 31st, 2009 at 8:14 am
Here’s the video of Buzz Aldrin punching a moon hoax conspiracy theorist in the face: