I don鈥檛 envy the makers of 罢丑别听Right听Stuff, who set about reimagining one of the best films ever produced about US endeavours in air and space. Perhaps sensing that millennials and Gen Z aren鈥檛 as interested in brave, escapist tales from the cold war, the remake dumps the biopic aspects of the story for a more 鈥渇amily friendly鈥� feel. What exactly the makers thought was family friendly about a bunch of heavy drinking macho test pilots escapes me, but this ragtag group of seven scooped up from the US Air Force, Navy and Marines to sit inside the Mercury space rockets听is the focus of the first series.
The remake gets it wrong from the start. In the 1983 film鈥檚 unforgettable opening, an 鈥渦nknown鈥� pilot鈥檚 Bell X-1 rocket plane launches off a (real) Boeing B-29 Superfortress 40,000 feet above the (real) Mojave desert, only to slam into the ground and explode into a (real) fireball, making a widow of his young wife. Within 4 minutes, we understand everything about the short lives of test pilots, who spend 99 per cent of their time bored in cockroach-infested motels next to dusty runways, only to risk their lives for 1 per cent sheer, unadulterated exhilaration in tin cans with wings attached to rocket engines.
Real test pilots, and pilots in general, aren鈥檛 known for their charisma, which is why the film pushes dialogue aside in favour of stunning cinematography in barren locations with photorealistic aircraft models that glint in the sun and flare against the grain of 35 millimetre film.
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In the made-for-TV remake, the gripping opening scene is replaced with a Disneyfied rocket countdown, all the jets are obviously computer generated, the cinematic set pieces are non-existent and even the explosions are abruptly skipped. The most dramatic bit of the first episode is pilot Alan Shepard (Jake McDorman) being a bit late for a meeting.
What鈥檚 also skipped is the lynchpin of the film and book: Chuck Yeager, a quiet test pilot who confronts his inevitable obsolescence as the bean counters from NASA roll into town. He dismisses the newfangled astronauts as 鈥渟pam in a can鈥� who sit helplessly while the rockets are controlled from thousands of kilometres away in Houston. Without this antagonist and the exciting visuals, the remake ends up being a very mediocre drama about a bunch of men who drink too much and have to sit exams with hangovers.
Even worse, what the remake does borrow from the film feels hopelessly out of date. Why does it take four and half minutes for a woman to appear on screen? And when one is finally allowed to speak 13 minutes later, why is she naked in bed? And how can I feel any empathy with a cast of men whose personality only extends to their preference of whisky? (That鈥檒l be a Scotch for Shepard, rye for Deke Slayton (Micah Stock) and 鈥渘o thanks actually, I鈥檓 off to bed鈥� for strait-laced John Glenn (Patrick J. Adams).)
When you hear the patriotic brass music rise as the men are introduced to the press for the first time, I hate them and the short-sighted bureaucracy which said they represented the best of the US. Perhaps that鈥檚 the point? NASA and the US military in the 1950s and 60s was hardly a time of inclusivity, but that鈥檚 no reason a TV show in 2020 has to exclusively feature white male faces and their washboard abs, and where every woman is a sex object. It鈥檚 like Hidden Figures didn鈥檛 happen.
The best thing about Disney鈥檚 remake of 罢丑别听Right听Stuff听is it reminded me to rewatch the film. If you are looking for a family space drama that is worth your time, try Apple TV+鈥檚 more nuanced For All Mankind, and wash it down with a chaser of Mary Robinette Kowal鈥檚 The Calculating Stars.
