Few things signalled the decline of modern civilisation as clearly as the inglorious end of the Space Race in the 1970s. It is understandable that the American and, consequently, the world’s public lost interest in space exploration when pressed with economic crisis, political instability, rampant crime, environmental pollution and other problems closer to this planet, but the speed at which this process occurred still looks remarkable today. In the case of the USA, this coincided with the Watergate scandal, which almost completely destroyed trust in the government and its official truth, creating fertile ground for various conspiracy theories, including those that questioned the Moon landing—the ultimate achievement of the Space Race. The mood responsible for those theories can be best seen in the film they inspired: Capricorn One, a 1977 thriller directed by Peter Hyams.
The plot begins when three NASA astronauts – Colonel James Brubaker (played by James Brolin), Lt. Colonel Peter Willis (played by Sam Waterston) and Commander John Walker (played by O.J. Simpson) – are about to launch on the first manned mission to Mars. Shortly before lift‑off, all three are taken off the rocket and brought to an isolated desert facility, where Dr. James Kalloway (played by Hal Holbrook), the NASA project leader, informs them that a faulty life‑support system would have killed them during the journey. NASA leadership has concluded that cancelling the mission was unacceptable, because the public had become apathetic to space exploration and politicians were likely to use that fiasco to scrap the programme and redirect tens of billions of dollars into their own pockets. Instead of admitting such an embarrassment, NASA will simply continue the mission with an empty module, faking the Mars landing in a specially built television studio. The three men very reluctantly agree to the scheme, and it works. At the very end, the space vehicle crashes on re‑entry and the astronauts are officially pronounced dead. The trio are aware that they have become inconvenient to NASA and are most likely to be silenced permanently. They escape from the facility and wander through the desert in a desperate attempt to reach civilisation and contact the media. Meanwhile, an intrepid news reporter, Robert Caulfield (played by Elliott Gould), becomes intrigued by the disappearance of his friend at NASA and begins an investigation that will lead to the shocking truth.
Capricorn One can be seen as two films. In the first half it works as a typical 1970s conspiracy thriller about all‑powerful government forces that stop at nothing to hide damaging truths from the public. In the second half it becomes a more conventional action adventure, ending with a quite spectacular scene that pits an antiquated crop‑duster biplane against two military helicopters. Both parts work as a coherent whole, mostly due to Peter Hyams’ script, which maintains a consistent tone by injecting a lot of dark humour and satirical observations into otherwise clichéd plot developments. His scriptwriting skill is particularly evident at the very beginning, when we are presented with a monologue from Dr. Kalloway—the character closest to a conventional villain—which serves as neat exposition and helps an audience born decades later to understand the prevailing 1970s sentiment, while also making logical sense and leading some viewers to sympathise with his predicament. On the other hand, another long speech at the end, delivered by Caulfield’s long‑suffering editor (played by David Doyle), feels as if it were artificially implanted from another film and makes Capricorn One slightly longer than it should have been. Hyams as the director, however, is here at his prime, skilfully driving the plot and providing plenty of entertainment—something that extends even to the ending, so different from the cynical, dark and depressive tone of many 1970s films.
RATING: 8/10 (++)
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