Capricorn One: Keeping it fake.

= 3 stars

Starring Elliott Gould, James Brolin, OJ Simpson
Directed by Peter Hyams

Amazon Link

Yet another entry in the seventies sci-fi genre, this one is better than others, but not by much. The plot is based on a compelling premise - a manned mission to Mars is scrapped due to faulty engineering, so the powers that be decide to hoax the Mars landing on a sound stage. Yes, this sounds partly inspired by the conspiracy theories that the moon landing was hoaxed. And yeah, one of the astronauts is played by OJ Simpson, the one and the same - who some would say lives in a conspiracy theory of his own.

The three astronauts (Sam Waterston, O.J. Simpson, and James Brolin) aren’t told about the hoax until minutes before launch, when they’re whisked off the rocket that takes off without them. They agree to play along after a fair bit of convincing (where it’s implied their families will be killed if they don’t cooperate). An empty spacecraft journeys to Mars and the landing is filmed on a sound stage (Stanley Kubrick isn’t present, otherwise this would be a much better film).

There’s some snappy dialogue during this decent first half while the conspiracy is put into action, but unfortunately, the suspension of disbelief rises to zero-gravity proportions, with some highly illogical moments (a phone call between the astronauts and their families that doesn’t account for the twenty minute time delay mentioned earlier). Things take a turn for the worse when the capsule burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere on re-entry. Does this mean the astronauts, still on Earth, need to be eliminated, in order to keep the hoax under wraps? At this point, the trio decide not to wait around to find out, and sneak off into the desert.

From this point on, Capricorn One fell apart for me. Dramatically, it devolves into three guys wandering around in a barren wasteland, chased by helicopters, which has little to do with space, less to do with astronauts, and not much to do with the conspiracy theory that’s supposedly driving things. Perhaps it would have made sense to treat the desert as a metaphorical stand-in for Mars.

Meanwhile, an intrepid reporter (Elliott Gould) does all the dirty work, eventually figuring out the puzzle, and stages an exciting yet oddly ridiculous rescue with a sassy crop duster pilot (Telly Savalas).

Recently, news came out that Capricorn One is being remade, and rightfully so, as there’s a kernel of a decent movie here. I support remakes of not so great films, rather than ones of awesome films where a remake makes no sense except for commercial reasons (The Planet of the Apes). I guess this is a roundabout way of saying this film isn’t worth much attention.

Wikipedia: Capricorn One
IMDB: Capricorn One
Rotten Tomatoes: Capricorn One 67%

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