Anna Moore

Green Group
Cinematic analysis Quarter 4

Part. A
There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their
controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The
demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could
no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could
ever pass. They called it the sound barrier.(The Right Stuff Quotes) The narrator says at the
opening of the movie The Right Stuff, a movie based off of Tom Wolfes book Same Name about
the test pilots who did aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base, in the California desert.
The Right Stuff tells the story of the first fifteen years of the space race against Russia. The film
starts by introducing the test pilots who work at the Muroc Army Air Field in California by flying
high speed aircraft while trying to break the sound barrier. One of the men, named Chuck
Yeager is the first to defeat the Demon in the Sky (sound barrier) in 1947, all the while flying with
broken ribs, that he got from being knocked off his horse the night before.
Six years later, the Muroc Army Air Field becomes the Edwards Air Force Base, and the
friendly rivalry between pilotes continues. In 1957, the Russians launch a satellite named
Sputnik, and NASA enters the space race, since it was believed that the first nation to send a
man into space had more power. They decide to get pilots to train to become astronauts and go
to the Edwards Air Force Base to find qualified pilots to try out. Although Yeager was the first to
break the sound barrier, and an amazing pilot, they excluded him from trying out since he didn't
have a college degree. In the end, The Mercury Seven astronauts were chosen, which were,
Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and
Deke Slayton. All seven of them underwent grueling training to prepare for their space flights, all

the while NASA was trying to decide whether chimps or men should be sent into space first.
While viewing the pod that they each are to be sent to space in, they insist the engineers, who
had only seen the astronauts as passengers in the Pod, put in a window, a hatch with explosive
bolts, and pitch-yaw-roll controls for the men inside. However, Russia beats them by sending
Yuri Gagarin into space on April 12, 1961. The astronauts decide to start the Mercury Program
immediately, and the send Alan Shepard to space, making him the first American to go to space. The
next man up is Grissom, but during his anding, the hatch blows open making the pod fill with water
and sinks. Even though Grissom escaped unharmed the country wouldn't believe him and said he
panicked and opened the hatch himself. The Next five men continue to be sent into space each with
their own accomplishments; Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth on Mercury-Atlas 6
on February 20, 1962, surviving a possibly loose heat shield, and on May 5, 1963 Cooper orbited the
Earth 22 times and was the last man to be sent into space alone.
The movie ends with a celebration in Houston for all of the Mercury Seven and their families to
announce the opening of the Manned Space Center in Houston, and Yeager, as he attempts to
break a new altitude record with the new Lockheed NF-104A, and is almost killed in a high speed
ejection when his engine fails. After the crash Yeager gathers up his parachute and walks to the
ambulance, even though he was severely burned, thus proving he had the Right Stuff.

Part. B

The Right Stuff follows the space race from 1947 to 1963. The Space Race took place during
the Cold War and the US wanted to keep the Soviets from having military control of space, so
they race to try and beat the Soviets. However, almost all of the first attempts to launch rockets
explode, making one newspaper make fun of President Eisenhower, saying Stayputnik. Ike's
Sputnik Is a Flopnik. (NASA Challenging The Space Frontier). Although, many people did not
believe the mission would succeed and made fun of it at the time, the movie shows almost none
of that instead showing the optimism of those involved. Another thing that was not shown in the

movie, was the requirements of NASA when it came to choosing pilots to become astronauts.
The only requirement the movie showed when it came to picking pilots was that they have a
college degree, but NASA also required that pilots be no taller than 5 foot eleven inches,
between the ages, 25 to 40, and have at least 1,500 hours of flying time.
Even though some things were not included in the movie, other things were, such as the
intense training the astronauts went through which included the altitude test and the spinning
chair, and NASA considering sending chimps into space instead of men. The movie also
included quotes that were said by the astronauts, for example, towards the end of the movie,
Chuck Yeager defends Project Mercury when people at his base were undermining the
astronauts, by saying, it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission,
especially when it's on national TV.(The Stuff of Dreams).

Part. C
As any good movie should, The Right Stuff used a variety of cinematic techniques to enhance
the viewer's awareness of the plot and timeline. The first thing that was used to make the viewer
aware of the timeline was the costumes and equipment. Since the movie was over a period of
sixteen years, the costumes and equipment had to match this change in time. The movie starts
in 1947 so the planes are models from that time and look like they came out of World War 2.
Instead of helmets, the pilots wear soft caps and goggles. Throughout the movie the plane
models and equipment used gradually change until at the end the pilots are seen wearing
oxygen masks, and hard helmets with tinted visors, while flying much newer and safer looking
planes.
Another thing that helped viewers understand the plot of the film, was during the meetings in
D.C. when NASA was trying to choose who should be trained as astronauts. Instead of jumping
to choosing military pilots as their candidates, the film took care to show the deliberation the

government and NASA used, which added added some comedy to the film as well. They
considered people from the circus such as shallow water divers, and trapeze artists.
The Right Stuff is a remarkable movie that shows insight into the Space Race and Project
Mercury, and although it is somewhat long, it maintains the interest of the viewer throughout,
while giving an accurate historic account of the time.

Works Cited

IMDb. The Right Stuff (1983). IMDb. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086197/quotes>.
Scholastic. NASA Challenging Space the Frontier. Scholastic. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr.
2016. <http://teacher.scholastic.com/space/friendship7/choosing_7_pioneers.htm>.
The Washington Post. The Stuff of Dreams. The Washington Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 24
Apr. 2016. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1983/10/16/thestuff-of-dreams/0ce5a12a-ce1c-4c54-b7a9-c8645fcbbd38/>.