Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, James Garner, James Cromwell, Marcia Gay Harden, William Devane, Barbara Babcock & Blair Brown.
Producers - Andrew Lazar & Clint Eastwood
Screenplay - Ken Kaufman & Howard Klausner
Director - Clint Eastwood
The seemingly irresistible force has just been asked for help by a supposedly immovable object. A brilliant man feels that he and his friends were once wronged by an insensitive government agency. Now he is being contacted by representatives of that agency who have come hat in hand to ask for his help in solving an unusual crisis.
The crux of this movie's plot is that the Russians have a serious problem. A critical satellite, launched by the old Soviet Union, is failing and they need to have it fixed before it falls out of orbit. But their people don't really know how to repair the guidance system because they "borrowed" the technology from our Skylab program.
The Americans are stumped also. A few of the young engineers understand the rudiments of this older technology but there is no way they can get up to speed on it in less than three months. And the satellite is due to fall below the safety line in a little more than thirty days.
The man who designed the system is still alive. But his reputation with NASA is that he was never much of a team player. They reluctantly approach him and are pleased when he agrees to help. But then he hands him his list of conditions. He and three Air Force buddies had trained for the space program in the late 50s and early 60s but were unfairly red slipped by NASA because the civilians deemed them to be hot shots. These four men, all well over sixty years of age, have to be the ones who go into space to fix the thing.
The true fun of this movie is watching all the little factions as each gives a little. Then they all find that they have to give a little more. Step by step, they do this marvelous little dance with each other as they gradually set aside ego and try to make a seemingly impossible situation turn out right.
With the cast that has been assembled, it would be very hard for a director to go wrong. But a lot of younger directors might have been tempted to punch it up and add in a lot more special effects. Take out fifteen to thirty minutes of character development and throw in a lot more action.
Director Clint Eastwood lets the effects and action stay minimal and special. He has understood that the burden of advancing this story has to be shouldered by the actors so he pushes each of them to give a performance that offers every other actor something solid to play off of. Much like he did in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Eastwood takes the often burdensome task of introducing the characters to the audience and turns it into that expectant chance to meet someone new and unique.
The pacing on both films is a lot like that inner tube ride, on a lazy creek, from one side of your uncle's farm to the other. Its a hot July day and you're wearing nothing but your swimsuit and sunglasses and you have that thermos full of ice cold lemonade with you. You start off the journey knowing full well that sometime down the pathway you're going to hit some rapids that will make things really exciting and finally you'll be thrown over a twenty foot waterfall into pond full of really cold and refreshing water. But for the moment, this lazy and twisting ride is just the sort of entertainment that you've been needing. So you kick back and trust the other parts to come along at just the right time.
I give Space Cowboys *** 1/2 Stars. There are a couple of minor inconsistencies with the plot. But the movie is highly recommended for a good time.