This betrayal was facilitated by Bob Gerson (played later in The stars’ own voices, so you know right away who’s who.) (The prologue narrates these events inīlack-and-white footage, and the characters’ lines are dubbed in Space program, dreaming of becoming the first Americans in space - until the project was unexpectedly taken away from the militaryĪnd given to NASA civilians, who proceeded to replace Eastwood’s Team of hot-dog Air Force pilots who pushed the frontiers of the (Garner) are the aging former members of Team Daedalus, a 1950s That has produced a host of big-budget, big-star disappointmentsįrank (Eastwood), Hawk (Jones), Jerry (Sutherland), and Tank In a year of record studio underachievement So what? If you enjoy the company, the trip Unassumingly formulaic, Cowboys is content not to blazeĪny trails, but follows well-worn wagon tracks to a comfortablyįamiliar destination. Where Armageddon merely strutted, Cowboys swaggers. Eastwood’s film exudes easy charm and never takes itself too seriously it runs on a slower-burning but higher-grade fuel: the likability and established audience goodwill of the four aging leads (Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner).
MARCIA GAY HARDEN SPACE COWBOYS MOVIE
Overblown, overwrought, and overdone, Armageddon was a movie on overdrive, fueled by adrenaline and testosterone, lurching along in fits and starts. The end, through wildly improbable heroics, though not withoutĬost and self-sacrifice, our heroes prevail.Īnd yet Space Cowboys is nothing like the earlier film. Government’s interests, who of course nearly ruins everything. Military character with a covert mission to protect the Last our heroes head for the stars, accompanied by a token Some friction with the space program’s regular astronauts. Love-interest subplot involving the youngest team member, and A training sequence follows as the would-beĪstronauts are brought up to speed for their mission. Signed up, even one (the youngest) who harbors a grudge against Since he has the government over aīarrel, they agree and soon the nominated team members have The designer agrees to do the job, but only if
Technology requires the intimate technical expertise of the man Outer-space mission utilizing a government-misappropriated Structurally, the plot of Space Cowboys is almost