Great Film: Space Cowboys
Yea right, we have John Glenn to thank for this one.
Space Cowboys builds its humor around a quartet of aged characters who seize
their first and last opportunity to fulfill their lifelong goal of going
into space. Space Cowboys satirizes the traditionally romanticized
conception of the young hero by portraying its characters as sagacious --yet
imperfect-- old men.
Space Cowboys revisits its embittered protagonist, the retired Air Force
test pilot Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood), forty years after a humiliating
episode where he is replaced by a monkey for a 1958 NASA mission to space.
Unexpectedly, Frank is summoned by ex-boss and NASA official Bob Gerson
(James Cromwell) to fix a Russian communications satellite that is soon to
crash, and that contains the obsolete guidance system that he and his
colleagues designed for the earlier satellite, Skylab. Realizing he is the
only one who can fix the system, Frank coerces the desperate Bob into
rehiring his old team: pilot Hawk Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones), structural
engineer Jerry O'Neil (Donald Sutherland), and navigator Tank Sullivan
(James Garner) --all seemingly unlikely candidates for the task at hand.
Gaining the trust of NASA Engineer Sara Holland (Marcia Gay Harden) and the
mistrust of flight director Eugene Davis (William Devane), the reunited
"Team Daedalus" face the biggest mission of their lives.
Space Cowboys, which benefits from the performances of four seasoned actors,
successfully establishes its four main characters as the source for all its
comedy. Space Cowboys' initial introduction of its protagonist (in the brief
black and white sequence which includes the humiliating incident with the
monkey), offers a convenient setup which allows the ellipsis of forty years
to hyperbolize the four characters' emotional states and to justify their
subsequent actions. Furthermore, this initial sequence, which also depicts
the four characters as audacious US Air Force pilots, establishes itself as
a point of reference against which the present inconsequential lives of
Frank, Hawk, Jerry and Tank will be contrasted.
Space Cowboys subtly and effectively creates an analogy between the
characters and the troublesome "guidance system": while the men's present
occupations are portrayed as rather useless, the guidance system's design is
described as old and obsolete, yet neither the men nor the system are
entirely expendable. (This suggested duality of man/system is emphasized by
Frank's ironic statement: "...it wasn't designed for this duration.") While
Space Cowboys draws its humor from the characters' efforts to revert to
their prior occupation and regain importance, the second part of the
film --the mission-- serves a dramatic purpose, where the characters' true
mission is to disprove the others' belief that they are outdated and
replaceable. Narratively, Space Cowboys' space sequence does little more
than simply prolong the characters' task of proving themselves, yet
visually, it offers eye-catching special effects and set design.
Nevertheless, Space Cowboys succeeds more as a comedy that deconstructs its
heroes than as a drama that exalts their heroism.
Cast
- Jerry O'Neill played by Donald Sutherland
- Tank Sullivan played by James Garner
- Bob Gerson played by James Cromwell
- Hawk Hawkins played by Tommy Lee Jones
- Ethan Glance played by Loren Dean
- Eugene Davis played by William Devane
- Sara Holland played by Marcia Gay Harden
