Seriously, how did I not know this movie existed? Last night I was looking at HBO’s list of what’s leaving this month and spotted “Countdown”, directed by Robert Altman, and starring Robert Duval and James Caan. So serious star power, a new director that would go on to make movies I love like M*A*S*H, and a topic that I find fascinating. Why have I never heard of this movie? So I watched it.
The answer to my question is simple, it’s a very dry movie. There’s a lot of created tension early in the movie but otherwise its kind of a talkie. The premise is that it’s mid 1960s and the Russians are about to put three men on the moon. NASA’s Apollo program is in full swing but cannot hope to get there for at least another year. The film was made in 1967 and released in February 1968. So the plan to beat the Russians is to use some left over Gemini hardware to send a single astronaut on a one-way mission to plant the flag before CCCP gets there. It’s a desperate attempt and probably something was was actually on the minds of those at NASA trying to meet Kennedy’s goal.
The movie is fairly accurate in its depictions of NASA if you ignore the mountains in the background at “Houston” airport. Apparently the movie was made with NASA’s cooperation and features high quality film of the VAB, crawlers, launch pads, and aircraft like the T-38. Compare this to the usual grainy stock footage usually inserted. It really has the feel of a Hollywood production. The filming style is typical for the mid 60s. The soundtrack could be swapped with Planet of the Apes and no one would notice. Leonard Rosenman is also known for Battle for the Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes soundtracks so that makes sense.
A pre-WKRP Ted Night is the PR person for NASA. In another tie to M*A*S*H, Mike Ferrell (BJ Hunnicut) plays one of the NASA engineers later in the film.
The ending of the movie is pretty typical of films of the day. Altman was going for a political statement about the cold war and the heroes of space exploration. I enjoyed the film. I would recommend it for space buffs. It’s a good time capsule of what people were thinking about the space race barely a year after the Apollo 1 tragedy.
