![]() ![]() Note how Hyams has them turn to “face each other” periodically, as if they were living beings consulting each other. Mechanical Bloodhounds - An excellent touch by Hyams is how he handles the two Hughes 500 helicopters sent to track down the three escaped astronauts. Sensitivity to this dual-villain-hood is alive and strong, even today - 40 years later. So, in a mixture of Bread and Circus and The Matrix, the industrial complex and the politicians fabricate popular lies. Public tolerance for big budgets (and therefore big taxes) wanes. The problem, as explained by Jim, is that the public (the real source of the money) loses interest in programs. The two together, in a sort of dark symbiosis, perpetuate a lie in order to keep the money flowing. As such, Hyam’s 1978 story about a faked mission - which looked a lot like an Apollo mission - found a willing audience and added fuel to the fake moon landing theories.ĭual Villains - The double villains in the story are the government (naturally), but also the corporate-industrial-complex that depends on government funding. The broad tar brush assumed that if the government lied about somethings, that everything they said was a lie too. Other films in the 70s, such as The Andromeda Strain and The Resurrection of Zachary Taylor, explored the government conspiracy trope. In the wake of the failure in Vietnam and the Watergate Scandal, cultural trust in government was at an epic low. The acting is quite good too - OJ being the exception.Ĭonspiracy Theories - Two books were published, one in 1974, another in 1976, claiming that the Apollo landings on the moon had been faked. Hyams does an excellent job with the visuals. Setting aside the tinfoil hat aspect, C1 is well written and well presented story. At a grave-side memorial service for Brubaker, he and Robert drive up and run in slow motion as the astonished crowd turn to see. ![]() Through fancy flying, Telly evades the helicopters’ machine guns. The helicopters locate Brubaker too, but Robert arrives in a crop-dusting plane her hired (Telly Savalas as the owner/pilot) They get Brubaker up on a wing and flee. Jim sent a pair of killer helicopters to hunt them down. Meanwhile, Brubaker, Willis and Walker have split up to go different directions. Taking Elliot’s comment about 300 miles, he locates the only abandoned base in range. ![]() Robert then realizes the mission was faked. She said they vacationed at Flat Rock - a western movie set, with comments about how ‘they’ can fake anything. Robert noticed Kay’s reaction to the Yosemite comment and asks her. They belly land only a few dozen miles away, in the desert. Brubaker figures the new storyline out, and realizes that they will be killed to keep the secret. Meanwhile, the re-entry is said to have failed and all three died instantly. In a homebound transmission, Brubaker gives his wife an insider hint by mistakenly saying they vacationed at Yosemite. Elliot starts to tell his reporter friend Robert about the odd vibes, but Elliot disappears without a trace. His observation is brushed aside by his bosses. Elliot, tech in Houston ,keeps noticing that the transmissions arrive too soon, like they’re only coming from 300 miles away, not millions of miles away. Jim asks them to cooperate for the good of the program, and hints that their families might die if they do not. Jim shows them a sound state with a landing module on a fake Mars set. But, if the mission was scrubbed, NASA would lose funding, so the mission will be faked. They are told that the life support system for Capricorn One was faulty - the product of lowest-bid corporate corner cutting. The three, Brubaker, Willis and Walker (OJ Simpson) are taken to an abandoned air base. At T-minus-10 minutes, Flight Director Jim Kelloway ushers the men out of the capsule, and into a waiting Lear Jet. With the usual techno-blather and ceremony, the three astronauts of Capricorn One are loaded into their capsule for man’s first manned mission to Mars. It became culturally overshadowed by Star Wars and the new-think of sci-fi. C1 was a major studio effort, and did okay, but a bit “old school”. Hal Holbrook plays the middle man between the astronauts and the sinister plot. Elliot Gould plays the persistent news reporter. James Brolin plays the lead as astronaut Charles Brubaker. The cast of C1 are recognized names in the 70s film world. This, in stark contrast to the field of low-budget and marginal indie films that ’78 had seen thus far. It would be the big budget sci-fi movie for 1978. Peter Hyams wrote and directed Capricorn One (C1). ![]()
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