Post by kijii on May 21, 2020 4:24:40 GMT
Countdown (1967) / Robert Altman
This was Altman's first feature film. While it doesn't yet have "the Altman touch," it is fairly exciting. The 60s were a time when America was in a cold war race with "the Russians" to be the first to have a maned landing on the moon. (We didn't actually accomplish this until July of 1969. So, while this story may seen unoriginal now. it was still a mission that had yet to be accomplished when the movie was released.)
Another thing to consider when viewing this movie today is that neither, Robert Duvall nor James Caan were well-known actors when this movie was released. Robert Duvall first played the nonspeaking role as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird and later appeared in Altman's MASH as Maj. Frank Burns in 1970. Caan and Duvall first appeared together in Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969) and again in The Godfather (1972).
Chiz (Robert Duvall) : All right, now, listen. A week before Pilgrim goes, we send up a shelter stocked with food, oxygen, all life support systems on the same type of bird. Everything's in here. There's systems, communications, trajectories and Dunc is my backup. Now, the shelter has a flashing beacon and a radar signal. And Surveyor will probably spot it too. Now, if I don't locate it with all that, I complete a figure eight around the moon, swing back, and reenter behind a beefed up heat shield. Now, three days later I'm getting stoned on a carrier as the band plays.
Rick (Michael Murphy) : Who thought it up? An LSD research team?
This was Altman's first feature film. While it doesn't yet have "the Altman touch," it is fairly exciting. The 60s were a time when America was in a cold war race with "the Russians" to be the first to have a maned landing on the moon. (We didn't actually accomplish this until July of 1969. So, while this story may seen unoriginal now. it was still a mission that had yet to be accomplished when the movie was released.)
Another thing to consider when viewing this movie today is that neither, Robert Duvall nor James Caan were well-known actors when this movie was released. Robert Duvall first played the nonspeaking role as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird and later appeared in Altman's MASH as Maj. Frank Burns in 1970. Caan and Duvall first appeared together in Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969) and again in The Godfather (1972).
Chiz (Robert Duvall) : All right, now, listen. A week before Pilgrim goes, we send up a shelter stocked with food, oxygen, all life support systems on the same type of bird. Everything's in here. There's systems, communications, trajectories and Dunc is my backup. Now, the shelter has a flashing beacon and a radar signal. And Surveyor will probably spot it too. Now, if I don't locate it with all that, I complete a figure eight around the moon, swing back, and reenter behind a beefed up heat shield. Now, three days later I'm getting stoned on a carrier as the band plays.
Rick (Michael Murphy) : Who thought it up? An LSD research team?