Nows and Forevers

Sixty years ago today, immortalized in one of my favorite flicks, “The Right Stuff,” and one of my fav movie endings ever, with the actual film of Faith 7’s launch and the late, great Levon Helm’s voiceover:

“On that glorious day in May 15, 1963, Gordon Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American. He was the last American ever to go into space alone. And, for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.”

And if you haven’t ever seen it, “The Right Stuff” has Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid, Harry Shearer, Jeff Goldblum, Levon Helm and Eric Sevareid in an epic and true adventure, beautifully acted, written and filmed. Walking around the Mercury launchpads when I visited Cape Canaveral was truly a heady experience.

When I saw this movie with my stepfather at the Mission Valley theatres in San DIego in the fall of ‘83, after devouring Tom Wolfe’s book that summer, the Mercury program was only 20 years before and all of the 7 but Grissom were still alive. Now they are all gone, and even a number of the actors – Shepard, Helm, Sevareid, and last year, Fred Ward.

I highly recommend “The Right Stuff,” which was directed by Philip Kaufman. and this clip uses a lot of the Faith 7 footage to great effect. And Bill Conti’s score, along with the credits rolling as Faith 7 streaks upward through the sky, it’s one of the most rousing endings to a movie I’ve ever seen.