|
Space
Cowboys
(2000)
 As
the leader of a geriatric space mission, Clint Eastwood goes
nowhere he hasn't gone before with Space Cowboys, but
he does it with the familiar persona and typical
professionalism that's made him the most enduring of stars.
His younger colleagues (those under 70, that is) should take
note — he's made a mature film that bests nearly all of the
summer's highly touted blockbusters for pure escapism.
It's all in the
tone. Assuming double duty as actor and director, Eastwood
breezily dismisses plausibility and instead lampoons his own
macho mannerisms and tart one-liners. He plays Frank Corvin, a
retired Air Force test pilot recruited by his old nemesis,
NASA exec Bob Gerson (James Cromwell), to reprogram an
inoperative Russian satellite about to come crashing down to
earth. Frank takes the job on the condition that he be allowed
to take with him his old, formerly hot-shot flying team (James
Garner, Donald Sutherland, Tommy Lee Jones), all of whom were
denied the opportunity for space flight 40 years ago by Gerson.
Compressing
years of training into three weeks, the film revels in the
sight gags of old men, saggy butts and all, standing in line
for physicals and going through zero-gravity training,
simulated flights, and various rookie initiations and
humiliations. Perhaps too eager to poke cheeky fun at the
characters' rediscovered male camaraderie, Eastwood slackens
the pace, courting redundancy and obviousness just to score a
few needless jokes. The relaxed mood does allow for a mature
romance between a spirited Jones and Marcia Gay Harden's NASA
mission director, which is nicely balanced by Sutherland's
dirty-old-man approach to skirt-chasing. Garner,
unfortunately, has little to do.
A subplot
introducing Cold War-style espionage and the addition of two
young astronauts to the team falls flat but indulges Eastwood
in his anti-authoritarian streak and allows him the ultimate
defense of age versus youth. It also lifts the plot, at an
hour and 20 minutes and counting, off the ground and into
thriller mode. Thanks to a combination of actual space shuttle
footage and convincing special effects, the suspense is
effective, although a final shift toward a Dr. Strangelove-like
climax is off-putting and, to put it mildly, morbid.
The final
misstep doesn't obscure the fact that Space Cowboys is
well-crafted and watchable. Eastwood's made the point, without
hiding behind a wrinkle-smoothing gel lens, that he can act
his age and still have some devilish fun.
|
