GREATEST MOVIES (non-lesbian) #5 - The Right Stuff (1983)

Last year, a website whose name I have proudly forgotten posted its list of "best aviation movies". One glimpse was enough to tell me that the list was fatally flawed, for not only was The Right Stuff not at no.1, it wasn't even on there. Yet no other film has so intensely fetishised the spirit of flying (or indeed, specific aircraft - in this case the Bell X-1 & Lockheed Starfighter); nor penetrated so precisely the mind-set of those who fly at the very limits for a living.

I've never specifically hung around test pilots, but I have observed fast-jet jockeys and warbird display flyers at close range (there is significant overlap between the three breeds). In general, they are modest, often quite retiring types, yet they exude an absolute self-confidence that enables them to risk their lives on a more-or-less daily basis in acitvities than can, and occasionally do, prove fatal. These pilots have a cool, calculating approach to risk coupled wih an almost casual attitude towards death - the balance between the two is precised and nuanced, and The Right Stuff captures it perfectly.

No spoiler alert this time, as the story of The Right Stuff is already familiar to all (if it's not familiar to you, then you clearly do not belong on this planet): the story of America's voyage into the Last Frontier, from breaking the Sound Barrier to Outer Space, and its remarkable slip from technological world-leader to playing catch-up with Cold War nemesis, the Soviet Union.

The Right Stuff could have been either a leaden pseudo-documentary or a squirm-inducing slab of patriotic bombast. Instead, director Phillip Kaufman - drawing heavily on Tom Wolfe's source book - plays this epic story of cutting-edge technology and political wrangling as broad comedy. The Right Stuff is an extremely funny film, from Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer as hapless Washington apparatchiks to the Fratelli Bologna as insect-like, verminous paparazzi. Best of all, the funniest bits (Chuck Yeager resorting to a broom handle to fly the X-1, Alan Shepard taking a leak in his spacesuit) are all absolutely true.

The film boasts a host of stellar performances: Sam Shephard as the relentlessly enigmatic Yeager; Ed Harris as gee-whiz patriot John Glenn; Dennis Quaid as an obnoxious Gordo Cooper; the list goes on. However, amid all the testosterone it's a woman who steals the show: as Glennis Yeager, Barbara Hershey channels Jane Fonda at her most alluring and delivers a performance dripping with sex appeal, and not a stitch of clothing being removed.

The Right Stuff takes three hours to chart a pivotal point in American history, but while its pace is measured it is never, ever slow. If you love flying, this has to be one of your all-time favourite movies. If you don't love flying, see it anyway - it might just change your mind.

"This ain't about pussy - it's about the monkey!"