"But on that glorious day in May 1963, Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American. Twenty-two complete orbits around the world, he was the last American ever to go into space alone. And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen." - The Right Stuff (Film), 1983.
The Mercury program was over. Four years later, astronaut Gus Grissom was killed, along with astronauts White and Chaffee, when fire swept through their Apollo capsule. But on that glorious day in May 1963, Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American. Twenty-two complete orbits around the world, he was the last American ever to go into space alone. And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.
I rented this movie so many times that the Safeway near my home sold it to me. Always wanted to fly, but astronaut status, eluded me. I did become a commercial pilot, but never crossed the Armstrong Line, so be it. I still love this music and the time in America it signifies, thank you.
Retired commercial pilot here spent almost 10 years as a Co-pilot fighting fire. (DC7/6) my dear wife, called me a "frustrated Spaceman". Per Ardua ad Astra.
@@tgmccoy1556 As someone who was a kid in the 1960s and followed the Space Program and who always wanted to fly or at least work for NASA, but never did: I can assure you that I know what it is like to be a "frustrated Spaceman"!
Hands down the best performance of this soundtrack ever. Every bit as good as the original. Thank you for a wonderful performance and for your service to our country. Your all awesome.
Yeager also had a bit part as the janitor whose broom is cut in half to give Sam Shepherd a stick to close the cockpit on the X-1. Ironic fact Chuck Yeager outlive Sam Sheperd !
The music makes me think of the challenges they faced. These men were Best of the Best. John Glen wife stuttered didn't want to talk to U.S. President Johnson. John Glen stated I agree with her 100 %
This music always brings a tear to my eye and a lump in my throat with pride for my country and yearning for the future. Bill Conti's score is truly an inspiration. Almost as inspiring as the rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" sang a-Capella by a Major in the US Marine Corps Band, I witnessed back in 1987 at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, performed on Memorial day. A truly memorable musical moment in my life. The Film, "The Right Stuff" and its music blew me away the first time I saw it in theaters as a kid. One of the great American films of all time, about some of our greatest heroes. Thanks for the share.
I was assigned to the Pentagon out of AAFB then. I made quite a few visits to Arlington National Cemetary and the Tomb in the 1980s and a few in the 1990s-2000s. Some official some as a "tourist" and a number as an attendee in mourning. You're absolutely correct about the emotions stirring and inspirations brought to the fore. Thanks for your comment David.
Wow! That was quite impressive! I didn't expect this piece to translate as well to a wind orchestra. Hats off to the performers especially, but also to whomever scored Conti's original march for this instrumentation.
Perhaps better known for his work at the Oscars, this is a fine companion from Mr Conte to the heroics of the test pilots like Yeager who braved the unknown and emerged triumphant to show the way towards space flight.
Mark Newberry: I’d say Mr. Conte is best known for his score for the movie “Rocky”. He won an Oscar for his score for The Right Stuff. I think these works will be remembered much longer than his work conducting the orchestra at the Oscars.
seven minutes for a great hymn to any tester pilot from the past to the farthest future, i can say that because when i was 3 years old something mysterious stroke my heart and i'm acquired a great passion for aeronautics in general... That piece feed me that passion.
He flew with the Marines and Air Force www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197699/john-h-glenn-jr-aviator-and-astronaut/
How do they not mention Cpt Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier and Scott Crossfield and many others that laid the groundwork for the space program that Glenn and the others participated in, and got the notoriety, for
What an excellent rendition of this wonderful music! I am surprised it is not a large number of instruments actually required. And the horns... most beautiful of the wind instruments. Always calling you home...
Interesting life, but the movie does get one detail wrong. Ridley was killed in a plane crash in 1957, but he's shown with Yeager at the F-104 crash which happened in 1963. I'd seen the movie several times before I found out that Levon Helm's original claim to fame was as a musician.
@@ericwaldow1890 Pretty sure this was Levon's last acting job before he died ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mn60YWO218k.html "Still have the shovel..." lol ...the guy was one of a kind .
I was 5 years old when a man landed on the moon. My parents and Grandparents stood around in awestuck wonder at what we had done. I wish I still had my plastic Saturn V and Apollo capsule toy as there is NOTHING that will erase that memory from my child brain. WE LANDED A MAN ON THE MOON! We all went out and looked at it that night for what seemed like hours. THIS NATION needs to INSPIRE its future generations to such dangerous endeavors as space travel and pushing knowledge and technological advancement by such boundary pushing adventures such as depicted in this film.
Good on you. Correct info. I recall mentioning this to Bill Conti, who replied tongue-in-cheek, "Good composers borrow, but great composers steal" [quote originally attributed to Arthur Honegger].
When it was released in 1983, "the Right Stuff" did not do too well in the theaters. Believe that was because the US was still too close in time to the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate to embrace such a heroic vision of the US. It was only latter after the fall of the Soviet Union and the US victory in Desert Storm over Iraq that the patriotism of the Right Stuff became popular.
John Glenn was a colonel in the Marines, not the USAF. Gordo Cooper and Deke Slayton were the other USAF members of the Mercury 7 besides Gus Grissom. Alan Shepard, Wally Schirra, and Scott Carpenter were Navy.
It took balls to climb into one of those oversized corrugated tin cans. If you ever saw a Mercury capsule up close, you'd realize how primitive it was. And the Atlas booster was, uh, "temperamental", to put it mildly.
I wonder why the Russians have never made their version of 'The Right Stuff"? After all the Russians put the first satellite in space, the first man in space, the first woman in space, the first woman in space
That's a very interesting idea. One of the things that makes this movie so great is that the astronauts are portrayed as real people, with fears, jealousies, and rivalries, and they still did what they did. I wonder if enough is known about the real people and events of the Soviet space program to make a similar movie about them. Does anyone know what it was really like, or do we just have the propaganda version of events?
@@ericwaldow1890 There are books about the early Soviet manned program. Some of the history is very sad like Bondarenko who caused his own death in a simple isolation assessment; and Gagarin's facial disfigurement in a drunken partying accident after he became famous worldwide for _Vostok 1_ at age 27.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver Gargain latter died heroicly in a jet crash. His plane was in trouble over a neighborhood and Gargain flew it till it was over an unhabited area. Unfortunately the jet was too low for Gargain to eject safely.
Mnie tam Top Gun nigdy nie podniecał, wolę Right Stuff, wielkie rzeczy, ale z dystansem, ja tak lubię. Dobranoc Agnieszka, popatrz w nocne niebo i pomyśl co chcesz.
Fritz Reiner moved so little while conducting that one day a musician in The Chicago Symphony brought a small telescope to rehearsal and looked through it while they were playing as a gag. Fritz was not amused, but I think the other players in the band had a good laugh later.
@@Russell_Huston Lived in Chicago during which time Reiner was conductor of the CSO. He moulded that already fine ensemble into a world-class orchestra.
You have to admit, they go fairly different directions musically. If anything, I'd say the comparisons to Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto are more apt. Either way, it sucks that he had to be so married to the temp track and I'm happy he had legal protection from all the Holst they had him stealing elsewhere in the soundtrack.
@@bomcabedal Might just be me. Having noticed the comparison once, I just can't un-hear the similarity. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cbJZeNlrYKg.html
@@jg2904 Oh yes, there are certainly similarities, but mainly in the supporting rhythms, I'd say (here I'm handicapped by not paying enough attention in music theory class, or I could've told you more precisely what I mean).
