They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To
Part Two
Before beginning the second instalment in this series of film reviews, let’s revisit the criteria.
Is the cast “diverse” only in a way that comports with historical facts, contemporary realities, and/or source material?
Is the film made with little to no CGI?
Does the film edify the audience?
Could the film be made today exactly as it was in its time? (Here, a negative answer is required.)
Remember, too, that the films in this series won’t necessarily be great ones. While there may be exceptions, don’t expect Oscar-winning movies or arthouse cinema. Indeed, some of the films in this series might struggle to qualify as good films, but they will have met the above criteria for being an edifying film from a time when movie-makers weren’t so terribly obsessed with subverting audiences, history, and source material..and nation-states for that matter. One of this type of movie is the next entry in our collection.
Boomers in Space!
Let us return to the year 2000, the dawn of the new millennium. Trepidation over Y2K has subsided and September 11, 2001 is yet to arrive. There is only the thrill of discoveries waiting to be made, horizons yearning to be reached. Space Cowboys was a summer “popcorn flick” that captured some of that expectant enthusiasm. It’s a film that returns the audience to America’s glory days, while showing that America is able to do the impossible even in the coming age.
Space Cowboys, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, tells the story of four old timers, veterans of the United States Air Force, and their unlikely mission into outer space.
It begins with a flashback to 1958. The aptly named William “Hawk” Hawkins and Frank Corvin are test-flying a Bell X-2 aircraft. Hawkins, later portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones, wants to push the machine to its very limits. While testing the speed and altitude capacities of the Bell X-2 is what they are supposed to do, Corvin, later played by Eastwood, isn’t too keen on destroying the plane or losing his life in the process.
But Hawk doesn’t listen to Corvin’s warnings. Instead, he looks longingly at the moon hanging in the daytime sky and tells his co-pilot, “That’s where we’re going. I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but…” he trails off and then starts singing Fly Me to the Moon.
Inevitably, Hawk pushes the plane too high and too fast. The engine stalls and the aircraft becomes unresponsive. Hawk and Corvin are forced to eject, and all the while the adrenaline-loving Hawkins keeps whoopin’ and hollerin’ in his Texas accent. Both pilots parachute to earth safely, but straight-laced Corvin is incensed and punches Hawk in a foreshadowing of many altercations to come.