My Favourite Movies: Capricorn One

I think I saw this 1977 movie at the cinema and probably with my older brother who, like me, was a great movie goer back then. The story would have certainly appealed to me at the time and I doubt that I would have only seen it years later when I brought home a borrowed video player.

Anyway, whenever I saw it I remember that it had a lasting effect on me. Probably prompted by persistent and nonsensical conspiracy theories about a faked Moon landing, Capricorn One told the story of man’s first flight to Mars. A 16 year dream for NASA director Dr James Kelloway (played by Hal Holbrook) he faces a tough decision when, weeks before the launch they discover that the life-support system has a fault that will kill the three astronauts long before they reach their destination. With NASA’s reputation, and funding, on the line Kelloway decides there is only one alternative – fake the landing to save the programme. Minutes before take-off the 3 astronauts are whisked away to a secret location and blackmailed into taking part in the deception. All is going well until, during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield accidently detaches and the crew are ‘killed’. The living crew are now not only an embarrassment to Dr Kelloway but a threat to the organisations that receive billions in funding for the Space programme. It’s about time that the ‘dead’ astronauts, so inconveniently alive, follow their fictional counterparts to the grave. But Willis (Sam Waterston), Walker (O J Simpson) and Brubaker (James Brolin) have other ideas even if they have to cross a desert as inhospitable as the surface of Mars to do it.      

Although now badly dated – and not just by the fashions – I still remember the interesting impact this film had on me. Not only did it highlight the possibility that, with sufficient will and technology, anything can be faked on TV (helping to deepen my growing scepticism of especially ‘approved’ images) but may have even planted the germ of an interest in survivalism which I have maintained a nodding relationship with. I did enjoy the part of the movie where the three escapees tried out their various skills in the blazing desert with various degrees of success. One other thing that I really liked was the sinister way a pair of helicopters was filmed as if they were living alien creatures hunting down the fleeing humans. There was definitely a deliberate use of their insect like qualities to add an extra dimension to the chase. Finally there was a rather funny cameo by Telly Savalas as the half-crazy crop duster hired by journalist Elliot Gould to search for the men. The movie is not exactly ‘top draw’ but I’m not reviewing the best films ever made but those which have, in large or small ways, stayed with me over the years and still have fond memories associated with them. Capricorn One probably won’t win any awards but I enjoyed it 35 years ago (now that doesn’t bare thinking about!) and I still enjoyed it last weekend. That alone should mean something.