Before he received international acclaim for his
work on the classic M*A*S*H, Robert Altman dabbled
in what was at the time merely science fiction. This highly
dated film tells the story of Lee Stegler (James Caan), an Apollo
astronaut pulled out of training and thrown into a last-minute
program to put a man on the moon. In an effort to beat the Russians,
NASA replaces fellow astronaut and friend Chiz (Robert Duvall)
with the green Stegler on a one-way trip to the Lunar surface,
where he will wait in a shelter until another Apollo can pick
him up. The film focuses primarily on the build-up to the mission,
and the conflict between the replaced Chiz and Lee, who he must
now train, but the last act of the film is a laughable romp
through space and across the moon's Sea of Storms in a relic
of the pre-Star Wars special effects world.
In 1969, Neil Armstrong and history made this
film obsolete for any purpose but to serve as a time capsule
for the era leading up to that fateful day, and as a result,
Countdown hasn't aged well. Not only does it lack poignant,
relevant content for a modern viewer, it also has none of the
signature stylistic elements of Altman's "auteur"
work that would begin only a few years later. It's vital when
watching the film to remember that in 1968, not only was the
space race in full swing, but the concept of a man on the moon
truly was science fiction. Because it was such a product of
the time, the film plays out like any other 60's pulp popcorn
movie, and much of the dialogue comes across as recited and
often unclear.
The same year, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space
Odyssey blew the visual pants off Countdown. Obviously
it had a much higher budget, but he also got a lot of the unknowns
correct, which Altman erred on. For example, there are no external
shots of the Pilgrim capsule after it takes off from Florida,
and thus one never gets a concept or framework of the situation
Lee is truly in, and there is no indication of weightlessness
either. When he does arrive on the moon, the Lunar landscape
looks suspiciously like a darkened Mojave desert, and James
Caan appears to be walking on Earth gravity. At least Kubrick
had the wherewithal to attempt to recreate these visual elements
in a way that appeared unearthly. Of course, Countdown
was never intended to be the special effects spectacle that
was 2001, but these oversights, or budgetary/technical
restraints do take the modern audience out of the film, and
add to the sense of datedness of the picture.
It's anything but a masterpiece, and at times
will have anyone who's seen any actual NASA footage holding
back laughter, but Countdown is a better time capsule
than it was a space capsule. For either a glimpse of the near
misses predicted by Americans during the space race, or to see
pre-Altman Altman, this is a great film to sit through. If you
can find it, spend a bit of time with it, and you'll either
like it for taking you back to the late sixties, or will thank
it for raising your appreciation of later science fiction films.
