Capricorn One

Capricorn One is a really classic film. It is so simple.It is like a really simple formula, really, really simple that has been so finely honed to perfection in simple story telling, as a gripping thriller with exiciting scenes and in terms of greatly effecting cinematography. The acting is so well carried off, fitting in perfectly with the so finely honed, most simple formula idea. Within that, each actor shines so well at least in the very effective constraints of the formula. Here is one of the best classics of storyboard, script and editing together. That this happens fortunately to combine with classic acting, action and human importance of the theme makes for one of the greatest moments in cinema.While some actors are given writing which enables them to amazingly excel, making some of the finest performances on film - Hal Holbrook, Karen Black and Elliot Gould particularly. The other starring roles are very well to excellently played, whether in desert outdoors or studio, and even small parts are at least finely achieved, Robert Walden - to really great, Elliot Gould's character's female journalist companion. Such is the quality that even cameos are so well done, such as when Gould's character tries to find his friend played by Walden and comes across an unknown lady in an appartment he is looking around.Telly Savalas provides some welcome relief in a less serious role, just as the plot and script veer off more into the kind of pulpish, science fiction ending. Yet the seriousness remains at the same time - it's a good idea for the topic where it is even relevant to show the theme in such a way as it is about certain elements of life being so divorced from the kind of everyday normality that most people would recognise. I'm certainly not criticising the ending, it's what the film does. And to me it seems much better than if it were to be getting bogged down in trying to make the film which is something so simple and starkly immensely meaningful into something that tries to be more believable in conclusion.It's a really serious subject - the film knows that - and maintains it through excellent, gripping entertainment all the way to the end.When I say it's a really serious subject I'm not actually saying I concur with the conspiracy theories that there was never any real moon expedition, landing, other space trips and so on. It just happens that this is a particular story - in the prevalent time of excellent, very relevant conspiracy theory cinema (3 Days of the Condor, Outland, Chinatown, The China Syndrome etc.) which so well uses a subject to present the government, illuminati conspiracy theme. It does it excellently.At a time when some of the most fundamental parts of old conspiracy theory movies can even be found to have come true or have been true all along (eg. 3 Days of the Condor and the USA in Asia in the first decade of this century, particularly Iraq), the illuminati conspiracy film can be one of the most relevant and important styles of artistic expression today.*** SPOILER PARAGRAPH *** - Hal Holbrook's terrifying speech after terrifying speech of lies is just the most exemplary example of this in cinema and can only be in the top ten achievements of cinema ever. It brings this move into one of the finest acheivements in modern cinema.---Blu-ray quality: Yes, it's very good. Some people might expect better for full HD, but its' very good quality and much better than I've ever seen the film in before (I've seen it numerous times as I was growing up before the days of flat screen and digital TV). Very satisfying and there is no sense of the (very nice) visual experience detracting from the visual story, which I feel could have been the case in a different render, and can be the case in some HD films. Yes - I think if you feel the quality here is disappointing, you don't really relate to the life of the film well.Some people are saying their disc is in 4:3, which I didn't find - I watched in widescreen. It's one of the narrower panavision widescreen formats which are to be found in mainstream cinema, and great to watch in that. I know that when this film was screened on TV in the 1980s, for example, it was in 4:3 and it's very difficult to see how they made a tall 4:3 after you've seen this narrow widescreen original version.Certainly, it's a disc to have. Mine was rented, but I want to buy a copy as soon as I can.

This is maybe hyams' best film. He's always been a good director, and you can tell by this title how working in the Seventies was beneficial to many people in the cinema industry. Hyams would never be so in shape as in capricorn one, helped by a good script and an excellent idea that doesn't just hint at monnlanding conspiracy theory, but also reflect the sense of disbelief toward institutions of that era. It's a very well directed film, both in the action and in the dialogue scenes. i love the way the photography, the acting, the camera, the editing and the sound contribute in giving you the exact atmosphere of a scene and a situation, without overdoing: usually it's a long shot, filled with silence and pauses, slow camera movement, always keeping the character and thr setting in the middle of the scene. Often sottracting detailes instead of piling them up in a exagerated concentration of infos like they started doing in the cinema from the following decades (the eighthies) and even more later on. Now it's unconceivable not to cut every 2 seconds, resulting in a total loss of sense and comcentration of the viewer, who is constantly defocused from what's going on. Still, the action sequences are adrenalinic and very well crafted, so the movie is very well balanced: fast when it must, slow and suspended when it needs to let you live with the characters and their dilemma. Just one flaw: the ending. It's obiously a producer's cut, because it's not comsistent with the rest of the movie, and you can tell it by the awful slow motion: when it's not fluid but jittering like in that sequence, it means that the director didn't shoot it to slow it down in post production (and it makes sense, because that clip doesn't belong to the kind of mood you felt throughtout the story). So, when I saw it, I could hear the producer saying: " well, won't you end the movie so low key, silently and without emphasis?! Stress it up, give it some good effect, make it look amd sound glorious: the audience must understand everything ended up fine". That scene was probably the beginning of the end of an era.

Interesting take on the moon landing, reflective of the conspiracy that man has never been to the moon.

This is a must-see movie for all those who believe that the the moon landing was a hoax.

This movie is a classic action movie,a must see .

Ottimo film di quelli "come non se ne fanno più".Gli attori sono tutti eccellenti, a partire dal grande Elliott Gould, scanzonato come sempre, ma serio quanto basta a ricoprire il suo ruolo di "salvatore della verità e della giustizia". C'è anche Telly Savalas in un ruolo secondario. e tutta una serie di ottimi caratteristi tipici di quell'epoca.E' un film che fa pensare e che butta benzina sul fuoco delle teorie complottiste relative al finto allunaggio dell'Apollo 11.Personalmente penso che sarebbe impossibile far passare sotto silenzio una tale finzione... pertanto, io prendo questo film solo come una splendida avventura con un finale emozionante,... niente di "rivelatorio", insomma.In ogni caso, è un ottimo film. Se non l'avete mai visto, non perdetevelo.

De film is geweldig en voor mij 5 sterren waard. Ik had al een dvd van deze film en die is top. Maar in dit specifieke geval schrijf ik de recensie over de dvd versie van Network welke volgens de cover 'digitaly restored' moet zijn. Die term was voor mij aanleiding om ook deze versie te kopen, maar dat blijkt een rip-off term te zijn, want de kwaliteit is zeker niet beter dan de versie die ik al had. Sterker nog ik denk dat die oudere versie zelfs iets beter en scherper beeld heeft! Desalniettemin is de beeldkwaliteit van de film best goed, maar van digitally resrored had ik echt meer verwacht. De Network versie heeft ook GEEN ondertiteling, niks, geen Engels, geen Nederlands noch andere talen, niks! Mijn oudere dvd heeft die wel! De enige meerwaarde die de Network dvd heeft ten opzichte van de oudere versie (en tevens de enige reden waarom ik deze toch niet retourneer) is dat de Network dvd aardig wat extra's zoals achter de schermen opnames als bonus bevat. Weliswaar in belabberde beeldkwaliteit, maar toch iets leuks dat mijn oudere dvd versie dan weer niet heeft. Heel jammer en een gemiste kans dat ze bij deze nieuwe uitgave nota bene niet de moeite hebben genomen om er ondertitels in diverse gangbare Europese talen of tenminste in het Engels erbij te voegen, niet dus... helaas, jammer en dom!

CAPRICORN ONE relate l'aventure (ou plutot la mesaventure) d'un trio de cosmonautes appelles a prendre part au premier voyage spatial cense aboutir a la decouverte et a la conquete de la planete Mars. Mal lui en prend puisque quelques minutes avant le decollage de sa fusee l'equipage est requis d'evacuer promptement son astronef pour se retrouver isole dans une ancienne base desaffectee de l'armee de l'air opportunement transformee en studio de cinema . Le but de cette operation est de faire croire au bon peuple americain que la premiere tentative de vol habite en direction de Mars a ete un franc succes justifiant la poursuite du programme spatial et les enormes budgets qu'il requiert dans ce but. Revoltes par cette odieuse mascarade a laquelle on leur demande de prendre part sous peine de represailles a l'encontre de leurs familles les cosmonautes parviennent a tromper la vigilance de leurs gardiens. Ils s'enfuient tous mais un seul d'entre eux parviendra in extremis a faire eclater la verite au grand jour . Une bonne et intelligente denonciation de la pratique du mensonge d' etat. Le metteur en scene n'avait peut etre pas oublie a l'epoque ou fut tourne le film (1977) que seulement huit ans apres que Neil Armstrong eut pose le pied sur la lune il se trouvait des milliers de gens pourtant instruits et raisonnablement intelligents qui refusaient de croire a la reussite de l'alunissage de la mission Apollo et qui tout en criant a l'imposture allaient jusqu'a contester l'authenticite des images prises par Aldrin et Armstrong eux memes!!!!!