Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner in the Clint Eastwood movie ‘Space Cowboys’

Movies based in space have a natural appeal to me, with the Clint Eastwood directed Space Cowboys (2000) being an appreciated representative. Adventure, action and thrills intersperse with a story more than forty-years in the making. Lines blurred at the beginnings of the United States space program’s involvement with the U.S. Air Force and NASA, a story that includes Skylab came into the story set more than twenty-years into the past of the current day.

(From left, Courtney B. Vance as Roger Hines, Tommy Lee Jones as Hawk Hawkins, James Garner as Tank Sullivan, Clint Eastwood as Frank Corvin, Donald Sutherland as Jerry O’Neill and Loren Dean as Ethan Glance in the Clint Eastwood movie Space Cowboys).

The decaying orbit of an old Soviet Union satellite using technology technology designed by Frank Corvin as portrayed by Clint Eastwood and Toby Stephens brings the past into the present day. It is Bob Gerson, as portrayed by James Cromwell and Billie Worley, who seemingly central roles in the distant past and the movie’s present helps introduce the necessary links that initiate the story of getting Frank, who had pined for space flight since the 1950s, into space.

(From left, Marcia Gay Harden as Sara Holland and William Devane as Gene Davis in the Clint Eastwood movie Space Cowboys).

Frank had friends from the beginning storyline who shared similar hopes of becoming astronauts. When the possibility to go to space is introduced to Frank, getting seats on a space shuttle for Hawk Hawkins as portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones and Eli Craig, Jerry O’Neil as portrayed by Donald Sutherland and John Asher, and Tank Sullivan as portrayed by James Garner and Matt McColm becomes job number one.

(From left, James Cromwell as Bob Gerson and Rade Serbedzija as General Vostov in the Clint Eastwood movie Space Cowboys).

The internal workings at NASA, along with the opportunity for publicity, mixes Frank, Hawk, Jerry and Tank into a mission to recover the satellite aboard fictional Space Shuttle Daedalus. Bob Gerson aims to spoil this chance at space for the elder statesmen with a younger set of astronauts poised to learn from Frank and his friends. Ethan Glance and Roger Hines, as portrayed by Loren Dean and Courtney B. Vance, respectively, ride to space with the elder statesmen as part of Team Daedalus.

(From left, Clint Eastwood as Frank Corvin and Barbara Babcock as Barbara Corvin in the Clint Eastwood movie Space Cowboys).

Intrigue is found on the mission in space thanks to intrigue tracing back to the KGB. Powerful ramifications are felt for the men in space as well as for people in ground control. Flight director Gene Davis along with Hawk Hawkins love interest Sara Holland, as portrayed, respectively, by William Devane and Marcia Gay Harden, gain their feet in the second half of the movie; the subterfuge of General Vostove, as portrayed by Rade Serbedzija, is paired with a surprise dance partner that knew full well, along with Ethan, the true stakes in play in space. The departing shot of the movie, accompanied by the music of Frank Sinatra, provides a surprisingly uplifting joyous note to the closing of the movie.

Writing credits for Space Cowboys rest with Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner. I grant Space Cowboys as directed by Clint Eastwood 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and the Ron Howard film ‘Far and Away’

It was late in my junior year in high school, at the age of seventeen, when a Ron Howard directed film produced by Brian Grazer came to movie theaters. Far and Away (1992) tells a story of a young Irish couple portrayed by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman who flee Ireland for the United States in search of a better life.

(Tom Cruise as Joseph Donnelly in the film Far and Away).

Class, wealth and the rough and tumble 1890s era, lacking as it was for anything like a safety net for Irish in their homeland or immigrants in the United States, made largely pronounced undercurrents through the course of this film. An unforgiving episode of this exact point introduced us to the prominent characters of Far and Away, along with the general character of the personalities that would define the character through the rest of the film. Tom Cruise as Joseph Donnelly and Nicole Kidman as Shannon Christie would be the unlikely if not readily acknowledged love interest thrown into one another’s universe following the death of Donnelly’s father.

(Nicole Kidman as Shannon Christie in the film Far and Away).

Acting at the behest of the disinterested yet culpable Daniel and Nora Christie, portrayed by Robert Prosky and Barbra Babcock, respectively, Stephen Chase would act harshly in perpetuating an injustice upon Joseph Donnelly that propriety in the world of movies dictates an action of the aggrieved. Daniel Christie comically retaliates to the desired vengeance, garnering the details together that draw the daughter and Daniel and Nora, namely Shannon, to flee to Boston with Donnelly in the hopes of securing land in Oklahoma shortly after arriving in the United States.

(From left, Robert Prosky as Daniel Christie, Barbra Babcock as Nora Christie, Thomas Gibson as Stephen Chase and Colm Meaney as Mike Kelly in the film Far and Away).

It was in Boston, Massachusetts where a bit of calamity occurs befalls Joseph and Shannon, making them spend time and effort repeating some of the unfortunate luck that Joseph Donnelly had been fleeing in Ireland. Boston ward boss and Irish immigrant lends the reluctant couple work and profit in a manner that brings wealth to Donnelly, Kelly, and many others up the corrupt social order in Boston. The exposition here lacks the gritty telling of Gangs of New York (2002), as reviewed by Matt Lynn Digital, but the overtones if not the merciless character of the villain are present in Far and Away.

(From left, movie director Ron Howard and movie producer Brian Grazer on the set of the film Far and Away).

It is after the passage of time, desperation, and an uprising in Ireland that Chase, Daniel Christie, Nora Christie, and Shannon Christie ultimately bring the story of Far and Away full circle in Oklahoma that the narrative points of the movie come together. The villainy of Far and Away comes mostly at the beginning of the film for me, with the decency of a Ron Howard film returning to this narrative through the film without the grit of a movie that was shared ten years later in Gangs of New York. I appreciated the spirit of Far and Away, along with the question of loyalty in love combined with loyalty in family. The other tensions were clear if not presented with the anger and corruption of a Martin Scorsese film. Asking for that here, to be honest, just wouldn’t be fair. I rate Far and Away at 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, August 15, 2020