Philip Kaufman on the film fibs, demons, and labia that madeThe Right Stuffjust right.
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But like John Glenn orbiting the planet, Kaufmans epic had to circle the pantheon many times before splashdown.
(Can a Movie Help Make a President?
askedNewsweeks cover story, over a close-up of Harriss chiseled, blue-eyed face.)
says Kaufman, laughing.
He was the great New Journalist, really, of that time.
What was your attraction to Wolfe?I was a midwesterner.
Basically all my films up tillThe Right Stuffhad been about my versions of the American experience.
It wasThe WanderersandThe Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid, and the remake ofInvasion of the Body Snatchers.
There was something in Tom Wolfe that just spoke to me it was the sense of Americana.
I felt an obligation to attempt to get that Tom Wolfe energy and spirit into the film.
There is a main character, if you look at it properly.
Who is the main character?The main character ofThe Right Stuffis something called The Right Stuff.
So I went to New York and met Bill, and we became friends.
I think I mightve even played tennis with Bill and Redford down in Malibu.
Well, Redford ended up not doing it anyway, andthe scriptwas sold to Steve McQueen.
I said, Great!
I love the book, and I love Bill.
Hes a friend of mine.
There was no Chuck Yeager, for one thing.
Hes the key to what this whole thing is about.
And obviously, he disagreed.I dont think Bill even liked Tom Wolfes book that much.
I think John Glenn came in to save them or something.
It was kind ofButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Go to Outer Spacefeeling.
All of which was fine.
I outlined essentially the movie that is nowThe Right Stuff, beginning with Yeager.
I sat down, feeling pretty good.
I saw Chartoff light up with a smile.
And Bill Goldman left.
He quit the movie.
The question for Chartoff and Winkler was, Who do we go with?
The biggest writer in Hollywood, or this young guy?
They said, Phil, we wanna go with your script.
There was nothing left of Bills script by the time I got done with my adaptation.
But they gave me the sole credit.
What is the thing that draws all these people together and binds them together?
Thats not something you’re free to sum up in words.
You feel it in earlier films: Sergei Eisenstein, for one.
I grew up sitting in balconies and seeing double features in Chicago.
We went, probably, to make out.
Getting laid was out of the question, so you had to be satisfied with getting to neck.
But then suddenly, these moments would come up on the screen and we would stop and be riveted.
It was as if a spirit had just inhabited us.
Thats what we were looking for as we made this movie.
But there was something specifically American in what we were going for.
Your films often use Americana in an ironic or questioning way.
ButThe Right Stuffisnt like that.
But at the same time, its unabashedly in love with Americana.
Well, yeah, thank you and yes, the film is inspiring.
But Im not interested injustthat.
Im patriotic, but my form of patriotism is not pablum patriotism.
Theres a flicker, almost, with John Glenn where you wonder if hes gonna go with them.
Also, theres the scene where Yeager breaks the sound barrier.
And this is where artistJordan Belson, who created special effects forThe Right Stuff,came in.
Like the sky is opening up as man is first born.
And thats what Jordan gave us.
I dont even know what his setup was there.
Do you like this, Phil?
And sometimes I wouldnt, but Id still say, Jordan, yeah just keep pushing it.
It opened up another world.
Scott Crossfield, who is Yeagers competitor, is there, too.
There is a thing between Yeager and Crossfield: Who is the GOAT?
Crossfield has just broken Yeagers record and is at the top of the ziggurat.
It was difficult to get that shot right.
Its whatever you feel!
We wanted people to watch it that way.
Film is intellectual, its ideas, but its also a visceral feeling of some kind.
Like, what is the Right Stuff?
You cant quite define it.
Youre lookin at him.
And thats what the press wants: the ritual of the press conference.
Those guys all know that.
And Yeager wasnt flying the NF-104A at the same time that the barbecue was going on.
Sometimes we arrive at truths through, I dont want to saylying, but film fibs.
You put two things together; its like when you rub two sticks together and you get fire.
Its almost like that meme in horror movies: They detect a presence thats out there.
Thats sort of whats going on there.
Im the child of jazz musicians.
To me, movies are music before theyre anything else.
Either they swing or they dont.I wish jazz had not receded in the public mind.
Its the great American art form.
No American art form has more heroes in it than jazz.
Once I was gonna do a Louis Armstrong movie, but I never got it made.
You could have availed yourself of all the latest gadgets at his effects company, Industrial Light and Magic.
I thought,Why cant we just do that?
Lets forget all this technology.
Lets just be resourceful.This is a film about jerry-rigging.
All the flight stuff was like that.
We had models on wires moving through clouds or fog.
We were taking it back to some of the earlier masters of special effects, people likeGeorge PalandRay Harryhausen.
Whats the best of all the films about King Kong?
Its the first one because those effects are so magical that it doesnt matter how realistic they are.
Without Kubrick, it wouldnt have been made.
Both movies are also, to my mind, examples of film as experience.
Its about experiencing a feeling.Franciss company American Zoetrope was so important here in the Bay Area.
We had all these great sound guys working out here, includingAlan Splet,Randy Thom, andBen Burtt.
It was the era of Dolby Stereo, which opened up so many possibilities.
Those were really heady times.
I went out into the lobby to take a break, and there was Akira Kurosawa.
[Laughs] What was he doing there?
He came in and sat during the sound mix of one of the final reels ofBody Snatchers.
We have an element of locust hordes mixed in there.
Thats a thing that I hope we can preserve: the big screen experience.
With the biggest presentation, we can take full advantage of all the technologies and methods weve developed.
But not to present boring movies!
Technology can advance spirit and ideas.
Its kind of like what we were talking about with2001and Kubrick.
The idea that a film likeOppenheimeris gonna make a billion dollars?
Excuse me, Matt, Im ranting on and on!
And there was a demon that lived in the air, the narrator tells us.
The film is about battling demons.
So there is a spiritual component toThe Right Stuff.
Theres a mythological element as well.
Im gonna tame that bronc.
I wasnt there when Tom Wolfe saw the movie for the first time.
Irwin Winkler showed it to him at a private screening in New York.
When Wolfe got to that moment of Yeager and the airplane, he jumped out of his chair.
When the film was over, he asked Irwin, Can we see it again?
They went with the titleLEtoffe des heros, which translates asThe Stuff of Heroes.
Your films have always been more appreciated abroad than they are here.Well, yeah.
[Laughs] Thats why I dont get out much!
