The 1960s Space Race has proven a rich vein for filmmakers to mine from, both then and now, with The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 being perhaps the most high-profile examples. But even as it was unfolding, a number of filmmakers depicted visions of the Space Race's near-future. They included John Sturgess' 1969 film Marooned and Countdown, an early film from Robert Altman, depicting a desperate gamble to put an American on the Moon first.
Based on the 1964 novel The Pilgrim Project by Hank Searls and scripted by Loring Mandel, Countdown depicts the implementation of a crash program by NASA upon the news breaking that the Soviets have not only gone into orbit but are preparing a landing. Thankfully, the agency already has a plan in development called Pilgrim involving a one-way trip that will have an astronaut take a Gemini capsule to the Moon, landing it near a shelter, and staying there until Apollo can arrive. And thanks to a diplomatic kerfuffle, assigned astronaut Chiz Stewart (Robert Duvall) is replaced by civilian astronaut and lunar geologist Lee Stegler (James Caan). Stegler now has not only has to be hurriedly trained by the man he's replacing but also the threat of a hurried Soviet effort once word leaks out.
Countdown is certainly a handsomely made piece of work. Altman and his crew were allowed to film at several locations at the Kennedy Space Center, wonderfully capturing its mid-late sixties look, as well as NASA contractor sites. Indeed, eagle-eyed viewers can spot the Apollo 9 Command Module Gumdrop under construction in the scene where Chiz introduces Lee to the Pilgrim-Gemini variant. There's some excellent launch footage presented in widescreen (even if the rockets used contradicts earlier dialogue about what Pilgrim will use to get to the Moon). Not to mention that the attention paid to the costumes and Mission Control set is impressive for the era, and Altman's use of overlapping dialogue is present already here, adding a much-welcome dose of realism to at times melodramatic scenes.
Indeed, Countdown regularly finds itself getting bogged down in melodrama. Be it between NASA officials bickering over the plan or between Lee and his wife Mickey (Joanna Moore), the first hour or more of the movie ends up in frequent scenes of people debating and fussing at one another. While Altman was a master of making such scenes into fine drama (and in the case of his 1984 film Secret Honor, Philip Baker Hall's Richard Nixon on his own), but here he hadn't quite mastered it yet. Thankfully, there are also plenty of scenes between Caan and Duvall in this section of the movie, though watching the two of them butting heads can wear thin at times as well.
Unfortunately, Countdown also suffers in its depiction of the lunar surface. Which, in having been made in the pre-Apollo 11 era, ends up looking like precisely what it is: the Mojave Desert with some matte paintings to depict towering rock spires in the distance. Not to mention having Caan's astronaut walking around in one-g in a Gemini suit with no effort made to portray the one-sixth lunar gravity. The latter choice is even odder given a sequence during training where a "Peter Pan rig" helps simulate lunar gravity. It's a major fault, but one that is just about forgivable if one is in the right frame of mind to do so.
Countdown then is an overlooked, if slightly melodramatic, but entertaining little movie. One featuring some lovely sixties NASA locations and footage plus a solid cast. While not a classic by any means, it remains an underrated, if not entirely accurate, piece of work, both in Altman's filmography and as a space movie.
Based on the 1964 novel The Pilgrim Project by Hank Searls and scripted by Loring Mandel, Countdown depicts the implementation of a crash program by NASA upon the news breaking that the Soviets have not only gone into orbit but are preparing a landing. Thankfully, the agency already has a plan in development called Pilgrim involving a one-way trip that will have an astronaut take a Gemini capsule to the Moon, landing it near a shelter, and staying there until Apollo can arrive. And thanks to a diplomatic kerfuffle, assigned astronaut Chiz Stewart (Robert Duvall) is replaced by civilian astronaut and lunar geologist Lee Stegler (James Caan). Stegler now has not only has to be hurriedly trained by the man he's replacing but also the threat of a hurried Soviet effort once word leaks out.
Countdown is certainly a handsomely made piece of work. Altman and his crew were allowed to film at several locations at the Kennedy Space Center, wonderfully capturing its mid-late sixties look, as well as NASA contractor sites. Indeed, eagle-eyed viewers can spot the Apollo 9 Command Module Gumdrop under construction in the scene where Chiz introduces Lee to the Pilgrim-Gemini variant. There's some excellent launch footage presented in widescreen (even if the rockets used contradicts earlier dialogue about what Pilgrim will use to get to the Moon). Not to mention that the attention paid to the costumes and Mission Control set is impressive for the era, and Altman's use of overlapping dialogue is present already here, adding a much-welcome dose of realism to at times melodramatic scenes.
Indeed, Countdown regularly finds itself getting bogged down in melodrama. Be it between NASA officials bickering over the plan or between Lee and his wife Mickey (Joanna Moore), the first hour or more of the movie ends up in frequent scenes of people debating and fussing at one another. While Altman was a master of making such scenes into fine drama (and in the case of his 1984 film Secret Honor, Philip Baker Hall's Richard Nixon on his own), but here he hadn't quite mastered it yet. Thankfully, there are also plenty of scenes between Caan and Duvall in this section of the movie, though watching the two of them butting heads can wear thin at times as well.
Unfortunately, Countdown also suffers in its depiction of the lunar surface. Which, in having been made in the pre-Apollo 11 era, ends up looking like precisely what it is: the Mojave Desert with some matte paintings to depict towering rock spires in the distance. Not to mention having Caan's astronaut walking around in one-g in a Gemini suit with no effort made to portray the one-sixth lunar gravity. The latter choice is even odder given a sequence during training where a "Peter Pan rig" helps simulate lunar gravity. It's a major fault, but one that is just about forgivable if one is in the right frame of mind to do so.
Countdown then is an overlooked, if slightly melodramatic, but entertaining little movie. One featuring some lovely sixties NASA locations and footage plus a solid cast. While not a classic by any means, it remains an underrated, if not entirely accurate, piece of work, both in Altman's filmography and as a space movie.