Countdown

Countdown (1968)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: Robert Altman (!)

Starring: James Caan, Robert Duvall, Joanna Moore, Barbara Baxley, Charles Aidman

From: William Conrad Productions

Here's a random movie, despite it involving a few pretty famous names. Unfortunately it's only about average, as I explain below: 

Tuesday night, TCM showed several James Caan movies; I decided to see one I hadn't even heard of until a few days beforehand; this is despite it also starring Robert Duvall and the director being... Robert Altman! Yes, he once dabbled in science fiction.

This is not The Final Countdown and they are not heading for Venus; instead, it's a race to the moon. In short, because of reasons, civilian scientist Caan replaces astronaut Duvall in a solo mission to the lunar surface where Caan will be able to stay there for a few months as a capsule will already have been sent there. Yep, unfortunately for this movie, a few years later, the actual Apollo program and how they did the moon landings made this movie rather misguided in how such things would be done. Anyhow, of course they are feuding with the Soviets here too and are racing with them to get there first, and of course Robert is resentful he isn't going to space so there's friction between the two.

Caan, Duvall, and Joanna Moore (as Jimmy's wife) all do swell jobs, there are several stressful moments in space-as of course things don't always go right-and I am not against a lot of the focus being the prep for space rather than spending time on the moon; regrettably, a lot of this movie isn't terribly exciting and it has a rather abrupt ending. That and it maybe not giving you what you want... a shame. For fans of the director, there is plenty of yelling and people talking over each other. Even then, maybe it's not a surprise this movie isn't known to even a lot of film fans.