Hey folks, Harry here... I'm heading out to Madrid, Spain in the morning... just taking the pops on his first European journey, so I'll be missing seeing SPACE COWBOYS till I get back (about 10 days from now.) So... for now, that bat swinging, tommygun blasting mafioso has the flatskinny on the flick.... Here's Capone...
Hey Harry, Capone in Chicago here with my take on SPACE COWBOYS. I went to the public screenings that most people did on Sunday night.
He’s been at it so long, Clint Eastwood hardly qualifies as an actor turned director. These days, he’s equal parts of each. He’s an accomplished filmmaker with such classics as THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, THE GAUNTLET, PALE RIDER, UNFORGIVEN, and THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, he has established himself as one of the great living directors.
Even as an actor, Eastwood has managed to change with the times and become one of the most respected popular film performers ever. On the surface, it may seem he is repeating himself, but compare what he does in his Spaghetti Westerns to his films as “Dirty” Harry Callahan or his performance in BRONCO BILLY or as the dying country singer in HONKYTONK MAN (both of which he directed also). As he entered his late 50s and into his 60s, he played characters that didn’t try to hide their age (they didn’t exactly embrace it either) in films like IN THE LINE OF FIRE, A PERFECT WORLD, TRUE CRIME, and ABSOLUTE POWER, three of which he directed.
SPACE COWBOYS is perhaps Eastwood’s most passionate celebration of the glory of being a senior citizen, which to him doesn't necessarily mean that you're old. I’m guessing the film’s inspiration was Sen. John Glenn’s recent trip in the Space Shuttle. In SPACE COWBOYS, four former Air Force test pilots, who were cheated out of their chance to become America’s first astronauts are given a chance to travel into space at the average age of 65. The movie fools you into thinking it’s going to be science fiction; it’s actually a very funny and touching comedy. Eastwood, along with Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner, are the four pilots, and they have a chemistry that is undeniable. This isn’t exactly Grumpy Old Men In Space, but it’s close (and funnier).
The details of how they get to travel in space are complicated and not particularly important, but they are forced to go head to head with younger astronauts, and they are told that if they can’t match the same physical requirements, they’re off the project. Their mission is to put a falling Russian satellite back into its proper orbit...or so they think. James Cromwell (also very old) is the mission commander who doesn’t seem to get along with anybody. His character might be the only flaw in the film, since his dastardly behavior is about as subtle as a guy with a black cape and curly mustache.
With SPACE COWBOYS, you either suspend a certain amount of disbelief and go with it or you don’t. I found it pretty easy to do so and enjoy the hell out of it. Hell, even the unlikely love affair between Jones and Marcia Gay Harden as a NASA big shot works, if only because of how it plays out. The effects are great even though we’ve seen variations of most of them in APOLLO 13 and MISSION TO MARS. (Don’t worry; no aliens in this film.) This is a film that doesn’t break much new ground but still manages to fell fresh and different. Go Clint!
