Capricorn One (1978)

One of the best films i have seen

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I didn't see it when it first came out because the previews make it look like a crummy movie. I finally got around to watching it 40 years later, it was even worse than I had imagined. There are really no redreaming qualities to this film. The script is thin and silly, the acting was poor all around, with dimensionless characters. The special effects were weak, and the action sequences looked like the crappy TV shows of the 70s. On top of that the science and technology were completely wrong. It's really hard to believe that so much time, energy and money went into a move with such poor execution of what could have been an interesting concept.

To put it politely : this is not the most sophisticated and accomplished movie ever made about space exploration, just as it is not the most sophisticated and accomplished movie ever made about propaganda, conspiracy and deception.Strangely "Capricorn One" somehow succeeds in gripping the imagination and telling a rousing, suspenseful story. I suppose that at least part of the attraction lies in an almost archetypal sense of tragedy : here we've got three men of genuine courage and accomplishment, who are manipulated and betrayed by parasites, cheats and liars. It's like seeing lions surrounded by hyenas, or hunting hounds surrounded by sewer rats.There is also a cleverly devised atmosphere of claustrophobia and paranoia.It's strange how much our culture has changed since "Capricorn One". There have always been conspiracy theorists peddling themes like "The moon landings were faked". These people used to be members of a minuscule fringe movement, viewed with a mixture of pity and ridicule. Nowadays the madmen have taken over the asylum : look up "moon landings" on the internet and you can find reams and reams and reams of text explaining, for instance, how NASA is too incompetent to operate a coffee machine, how the earth is flat, how the earth is hexagonal, how Mr. Kubrick was paid a fortune in order to forge footage, how Mr. Kennedy struck a deal with aliens, how Apollo Thirteen was Apollo Four, Five, Six-and-a-half, Nineteen or Thirty, how it's impossible to take a picture of a celestial object, how Einstein correctly predicted that no human could leave earth, and so on (and on, and on, and on). These people have grown - not only in number but also in stridency, aggression, influence and arrogance.It worries the hell out of me.

If you're willing to overdose on suspension of disbelief pills and overlook the multitude of absurdities in Capricorn One, you can enjoy it for what it is: a silly, campy, thriller that only the most gullible conspiracy theorists would take seriously.Okay, the idea of (1) a shady element within NASA planning and executing a plot within a few weeks designed to fake a mission to Mars AND FOOL THE REST OF NASA, (2) erasing the existence of a suspicious engineer without anyone else at NASA, his neighborhood, family, etc . . noticing, (3) O.J. Simpson being taken seriously as an actor, and so on is all perfectly absurd. But hey, it's only a movie, and Telly Savalas' cameo is worth the price of admission.Bottom line: pop this movie into the DVD player, open a beer, remove your brain, and enjoy this generally fun movie. If you believe any of it is remotely plausible, you'll believe Oliver Stone's "JFK" as well.

NASA launches Capricorn One into space on its way to Mars. The space program is under financial stress and the President can't even bother to show up for the launch. The astronauts Charles Brubaker (James Brolin), Peter Willis (Sam Waterston) and John Walker (O. J. Simpson) are surprised to be secreted away. Director Dr. James Kelloway (Hal Holbrook) tells them that the life support system was found fatally flawed. Instead of scrubbing the mission, Kelloway pressures them to fake the Martian landing. Few people would be involved in the cover up. A technician discovers the conspiracy but then he disappears which alarms his investigative journalist friend Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould).It's an interesting premise for the paranoid conspiracy era. The story has great potential. I prefer staying more with the astronauts and the reporter. I don't think most of the scenes at the control room are that compelling. The movie feels a little scattered until the plane helicopters chase. That is a great sequence. It is a thrilling stunt and amazingly shot.