{"id":8965,"date":"2024-11-27T13:07:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8965"},"modified":"2024-11-27T13:07:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:07:53","slug":"capricorn-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/27\/capricorn-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Capricorn One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Capricorn One<\/strong> (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 123 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, language, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Hyams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Peter Hyams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bill Butler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 2, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, Sam Waterston, O.J. Simpson, Hal Holbrook, Karen Black, Telly Savalas, David Huddleston, David Doyle, Lee Bryant, Denise Nicholas, Robert Walden, James Karen, Virginia Kaiser, James Sikking, Alan Fudge, Nancy Malone, Hank Stohl, Norman Bartold.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Conspiracy theorists still clinging to the belief that the 1969 moon landing was faked will have a field day with Capricorn One<\/strong>, an early effort from writer-director Peter Hyams (Outland) that will likely confirm their fears about governmental malfeasance within the space program. Others will find it silly and far-fetched. Either way, you can\u2019t deny it\u2019s engaging and entertaining.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Capricorn One<\/strong> was made with the cooperation of NASA which is really something since it doesn\u2019t exactly paint a flattering portrait of the government agency responsible for all space-related matters. It portrays them as an evil organization that deals in deception, blackmail and murder. Who knew they were such great sports? Give them a round of applause.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot concerns the first manned mission to Mars. The world watches as a trio of astronauts, Brubaker (Brolin, The Amityville Horror), Willis (Waterston, The Killing Fields) and Walker (Simpson, Firepower), prepares to make history. Just moments before blastoff, they\u2019re removed from the craft and taken to an abandoned military base in the middle of nowhere where they\u2019re briefed by NASA official Kelloway (Holbrook, Magnum Force).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Due to a faulty life support system, the mission as they know it has to be scrubbed. Well, not exactly scrubbed. If NASA admitted to yet another failure, they\u2019d lose their government funding and public support. It\u2019s in the agency\u2019s best interest to make the world believe the mission is a success. In short, the plan is to fake it convincingly. To do this, he\u2019ll need the cooperation of the three astronauts. In true bad guy style, Kelloway threatens their families if they don\u2019t agree to go along with the plan. They\u2019re held at the facility where a mock version of Mars\u2019 surface has been built. They\u2019re filmed landing and walking on it. Naturally, their cooperation doesn\u2019t necessarily guarantee their survival. Something goes wrong, horribly wrong. Soon, the guys find themselves running for their lives through the desert.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, dogged TV reporter Robert Caulfield (Gould, The Silent Partner) realizes something is amiss after his friend, a NASA technician (Walden, Lou Grant), disappears without a trace after noticing certain things don\u2019t add up. He brings it to the attention of his superiors who try to blame it on a broken workstation. As he delves deeper into the story, attempts are made on his life. Somebody doesn\u2019t want him to discover the truth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For me, there\u2019s a lot to like about Capricorn One<\/strong>. Let\u2019s start with the star-studded cast, most of them shown in small boxes on the poster. That\u2019s always a positive sign. What a cast it is too. In addition to those already mentioned, it also co-stars Brenda Vaccaro (Airport \u201977) as Brubaker\u2019s \u201cwidow\u201d, Karen Black (Airport \u201975) as a female colleague of Caulfield\u2019s, David Doyle (Charlie\u2019s Angels) as Caulfield\u2019s editor and James Karen (The Return of the Living Dead) as the Vice President. Telly Savalas (Kojak) contributes a funny cameo as a crop-dusting pilot hired by Caulfield to help look for the astronauts in the desert. This guy sure knows how to handle a plane. Check out how he takes care of the two helicopters that come after him and Caulfield. Although she\u2019s only in a few scenes, Black makes an impression with lines like \u201cI\u2019ll fix you some coffee, then you can jump me.\u201d LOL! She makes several comments about being jumped by Caulfield. It\u2019s a kooky performance by a kooky actress. Holbrook is suitably sinister (and wonderfully hammy) as the NASA bigwig pulling the strings. Brolin, Waterston and Simpson are all good as the heroes-turned-puppets-turned-targets. Gould brings a dry sense of humor to an otherwise stock character.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Many think Hyams is a hack filmmaker and while that may be true to some extent, he\u2019s done some solid films- e.g. Outland, 2010, Running Scared, Narrow Margin, Timecop and guilty pleasure End of Days. I\u2019d put Capricorn One<\/strong> on that list too. It has a few pacing issues, but it always manages to regain its footing. The best scene has Caulfield trapped behind the wheel of an out-of-control car. Obviously, it\u2019s been tampered with by unseen bad guys. \u00a0It\u2019s an exciting sequence that ends with a plunge off a bridge. If nothing else, Hyams knows his way around an action set-piece.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What else can I say? Capricorn One<\/strong> is 100% pure 70s conspiracy thriller fun! Sure, it lags a bit in places and the acting isn\u2019t always great. WHO CARES?! I never said it represented cinematic perfection. For its type, it\u2019s GREAT. It tells a gripping albeit implausible story of the evils that lurk behind big government agencies. Capricorn One <\/strong>is a perfect example of a \u201cHidden Treasure\u201d. It wasn\u2019t the summer blockbuster the makers hoped for, but it didn\u2019t bomb either. It was the most successful independent movie of 1978. Even so, it doesn\u2019t get the recognition it should. It\u2019s been largely forgotten over the years. It deserves better.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Capricorn One (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 123 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, language, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Hyams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Peter Hyams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bill Butler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 2, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, Sam Waterston, O.J. Simpson, Hal Holbrook, Karen Black, Telly Savalas, David Huddleston, David Doyle, Lee Bryant, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hidden-treasures","category-suspense-thrillers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Capricorn-One-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8965"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9309,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8965\/revisions\/9309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}