The Right Stuff (1983)
92%RT Audience Score: 90%
Awards & Nominations: Won 4 Oscars
11 wins & 16 nominations total
The Right Stuff packs a lot of movie into its hefty running time, spinning a colorful, fact-based story out of consistently engaging characters in the midst of epochal events.
The Right Stuff is a movie that will make you want to put on a spacesuit and blast off into the great unknown. It’s a celebration of the bravery and lunacy of those fly jocks who fought the demons of space to launch a new era in American air technology. Sure, it may not capture the inner drives and ethics of the test pilots and astronauts, but who cares when you’re watching them break through the atmosphere and into the final frontier? It’s a movie that will make you feel like you have the right stuff, even if you’re just sitting on your couch.
Production Company(ies)
Columbia Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Bill, Phillips
Distributor
Warner Home Vídeo, Warner Bros.
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Cow Palace – 2600 Geneva Avenue, Daly City, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1984
-
Color:Color
-
Sound mix:Dolby
-
Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
-
Runtime:3h 13m
-
Language(s):English, Russian
-
Country of origin:United States
-
Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Sep 9, 1983 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 22, 1997
Genre(s)
History/Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Barbara Hershey, directed by Philip Kaufman, written by Philip Kaufman and Tom Wolfe, History, Drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Adam Nayman, Dave Kehr, Arthur Knight, Dolores Barclay, Sheila Benson, Gary Arnold, Taylor Baker, Diego Galán, Federico Furzan, Josh Larsen, Sean Axmaker, PG, NASA, space program, Mercury astronauts, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Chuck Yeager, Gordon Cooper, Gus Grissom, Glennis Yeager, Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler, Warner Home Vídeo, Warner Bros., Surround, Magnetic Stereo 6 Track, Dolby, Flat (1.85:1)
Worldwide gross: $21,192,315
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $62,058,060
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,240
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 6,767,509
US/Canada gross: $21,192,102
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $62,057,437
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 974
US/Canada opening weekend: $1,601,167
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $4,688,743
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,109
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $27,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $79,064,870
Production budget ranking: 531
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $42,576,432
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$59,583,242
ROI to date (est.): -49%
ROI ranking: 1,686
Scott Glenn – Capt. Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr., Mercury Astronaut
Ed Harris – Maj. John Herschel Glenn Jr., Mercury Astronaut
Dennis Quaid – Gordon Cooper
Fred Ward – Gus Grissom
Barbara Hershey – Glennis Yeager
Director(s)
Philip Kaufman
Writer(s)
Philip Kaufman, Tom Wolfe
Producer(s)
Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Won 4 Oscars
11 wins & 16 nominations total
Academy Awards
All Critics (51) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (2)
Where 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted astronauts (and mankind) as being at the mercy of some higher, alien intelligence, The Right Stuff finds its characters imposing their will on the unknown.
March 27, 2020
Adam Nayman
The Ringer
TOP CRITIC
Philip Kaufman’s 1983 film is an efficient and absorbing recapitulation of the main events of Tom Wolfe’s book that still never succeeds in capturing the inner drives and ethics of the test pilots and astronauts – the “right stuff” never materializes.
February 4, 2019
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
Rarely has a film made a historic accomplishment seem so vivid and personal… It makes you wonder, quite suddenly, why there aren’t more movies like this.
January 29, 2019
Arthur Knight
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
The Right Stuff is a spectacular celebration of those heroes of the skies — those fly jocks who fought the demons of space to launch a new era in American air technology.
October 22, 2018
Dolores Barclay
Associated Press
TOP CRITIC
Kaufman has combined the resources and ingenuity of movie making with the freewheeling, damn-the-conventions style of of the New Journalism and come up with a generous, high-spirited look at the bravery and lunacy that was that era.
December 9, 2016
Sheila Benson
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
It means something to be a member of the brotherhood whose trials and accomplishments are celebrated so enjoyably in The Right Stuff.
December 18, 2015
Gary Arnold
Washington Post
TOP CRITIC
Episode 12: Away We Go
September 1, 2021 | Rating: 90/100
Taylor Baker
Drink in the Movies
The Right Stuff is so clumsily shot and has such a simple structure that boredom can threaten to drown the viewer’s patience. [Full Review in Spanish]
February 7, 2020
Diego Galán
El Pais (Spain)
An epic symphony of triumph that portrays modern man as the ultimate being driven by power. So visually stunning it looks almost experimental. [Full review in Spanish].
May 24, 2019 | Rating: 3/4
Federico Furzan
Cinelipsis
Masculinely romantic…
January 26, 2018 | Rating: 3/4
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm
The Right Stuff (1983), Philip Kaufman’s adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s acclaimed portrait of the original NASA astronauts, is *the* American epic of the last great frontier and a genuinely romantic take on the first generation of space cowboys.
April 10, 2016
Sean Axmaker
Seanax.com
A great movie that unfortunately failed to attract audiences back in ’83, this adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s book about astronauts pays tribute to what we would like to believe represents the American spirit: hard work, perseverance, camaraderie and vision.
November 6, 2013 | Rating: 4/4
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing…
Plot
Tom Wolfe’s book on the history of the U.S. Space program reads like a novel, and the film has that same fictional quality. It covers the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager to the Mercury 7 astronauts, showing that no one had a clue how to run a space program or how to select people to be in it. Thrilling, funny, charming and electrifying all at once.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Sam Shepard plays Capt, Col. Chuck Yeager, a test pilot in The Right Stuff.
Philip-Kaufman.jpg
