{"id":16174,"date":"2017-06-16T12:01:23","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T16:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=16174"},"modified":"2017-06-16T14:25:43","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T18:25:43","slug":"dvd-x-15-1961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=16174","title":{"rendered":"DVD: X-15 (1961)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>:\u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: n\/a<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0MGM<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a01 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0February 3, 2004<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Drama \/ Space Exploration \/ Air Force<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0Docu-drama on NASA’s X-15 manned rocket programme.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0(none)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prior to his career-making hit The Omen<\/strong> (1976), Richard Donner had directed a massive amount of TV, spanning westerns, cop shows, and Twilight Zone<\/strong> episodes, and although his first feature film came just a year after his first directorial chores on Zane Grey Theater<\/strong> (1960), X-15 <\/strong>failed to pull him out of television, forcing a 7 year wait until Salt and Pepper<\/strong> (1968) and Lola<\/strong> (1970) popped up \u2013 the former a genuine cult film, the latter a weird one, but hardly the needed leaps to theatrical blockbusters.<\/p>\n

X-15<\/strong> was a mixed blessing, an attempt at docu-drama that combined nascent space exploration through NASA\u2019s early pilot-controlled, rocket-powered spacecraft and the fetishizing of aircraft gear & procedures \u2013 elements somewhat better dramatized in CinemaScope and booming stereo by Robert D. Webb in Fox\u2019s On the Threshold of Space<\/strong> (1956), an orphan film wholly absent from home video.<\/p>\n

Donner\u2019s low budget drama lacked big stars, and although made in cooperation with NASA and the U.S. Air Force, it\u2019s ultimately a dramatically sterile production with a dull script & characters by veteran James Warner Bella (The Sea Chase<\/strong>, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance<\/strong>) and one-timer Tony Lazzarino.<\/p>\n

Presumably Lazzarino\u2019s story & first draft were heavily rewritten, but it seems as much tech talk as possible was retained to maintain the film\u2019s documentary elements, but neither the pilots – played by character actor Brad Dexter, Charles Bronson, and then newcomers David McLean (Days of Our Lives<\/strong>)\u00a0and\u00a0Ralph Taeger \u2013 nor the wives \u2013 headlined by Mary Tyler Moore, Patricia Owens (The Fly<\/strong>), and Lisabeth Hush (The Stone Killer<\/a><\/strong>) \u2013 nor the commanding officers \u2013 Kenneth Tobey (The Thing<\/strong>) and James Gregory (The Manchurian Candidate<\/strong>) \u2013 nor the addition of James Stewart (Strategic Air Command<\/strong>) to narrate the portentous bookends enliven the fairly banal story that relies heavily on authentic test footage to maintain momentum.<\/p>\n

The inclusion of actual material capturing the flights, crashes, and pilots propelling the X-15 craft above Earth\u2019s atmosphere is impressive, but it\u2019s arguably the only reason the film maintains an attraction. Donner\u2019s dilemma extended beyond the script\u2019s limitations, as both the test footage and X-15 cockpit material were\u00a0shot in\u00a01.33:1, a square ratio stemming from a smaller camera that was able to fit into the rocket’s\u00a0tiny cockpit, and film risky\u00a0maneuvers\u00a0on the desert base. Neither the army nor NASA shot anything in 2.35:1 Panavision \u2013 using a bulky camera & lenses in cramped quarters made little sense \u2013 so Donner’s only technical solutions were to stretch shots to fill out the wider screen ratio or crop them into a faux widescreen ratio, resulting is a mess of constantly changing shots that shifted radically from properly composed widescreen images to stretchee-vision.<\/p>\n

The more logical choice would\u2019ve been to shoot the whole film at 1.33:1, but with most studio and indie product shot in \u2018scope, a standard ratio film with X-15<\/strong>‘s unknown cast, an unknown film director, and the reliance on test & archival footage to sustain the drama would\u2019ve been a drawback to theatre owners. It seemed widescreen would at least give the film a shot in first run cinemas (or so the film\u2019s makers had hoped).<\/p>\n

The heavy use of what\u2019s ostensibly army & NASA stock footage also meant actorly scenes had to be built around launches, and when the major characters were on the ground, dialogue &\u00a0romantic interests would have to sustain our interest, most of which fails miserably.<\/p>\n

The wives are clich\u00e9s, with Moore playing ex-fiancee Pam who arrives to rekindle a love affair with Powell,\u00a0while Owns plays Margaret, wife to Brandon (Bronson) and mother of son Mike (Stanley Livingston). Hush plays perpetually worrying \/ sometimes pregnant Diane to pilot Wilde (Taeger), and if prior and later dramas (The Right Stuff<\/strong>) of test pilots were closer to reality actual life on an army bases, then the homes of the three couples are outrageously stylish, packed with sexy modern conveniences, interior designs, and snazzy furniture. (As per Hollywood\u2019s conventions, Margaret always wakes up in bed with a perfectly coiffed hair, eye makeup, and shiny bright lipstick.)<\/p>\n

Donner and the screenwriters tried to start the film by immersing us into an active test run, but it\u2019s an aborted<\/em> run that occupies a good 20+ minutes of screen time before the story actually gets going. That opening is basically filler and redundant, since two later tests capture in detail\u00a0the X-15\u2019s successful first run, and a second with deadly consequences.<\/p>\n

What keeps the film alive is the dramatic arc of the craft itself, a slim rocket with a tiny cockpit from where the pilot disengages from a bomber and shoots skyward, coasting in the upper atmosphere before a rapid descent; and who\u2019s success is reliant on two chaser planes that ensure the craft is brought down successfully. When the X-15 is ready to land on the desert’s sandy flats, a shingle below the fuselage pops out, two skis extend, the craft taps land and tips downward until a set of wheels buoy the X-15 as it decelerates and comes to a stop.<\/p>\n

Donner may well have been inspired by the regal imagery of Stewart\u2019s Strategic Air Command<\/a> <\/strong>(1955), since he similarly fixates on aircrafts in motion and packs as much flying gear into single shots. It\u2019s great stuff, and you could argue the slimmed down characters ensure the gear is on equally starring footage.<\/p>\n

Donner sometimes referred to X-15<\/strong>\u00a0as the movie that killed his feature film career for almost a decade, but you could also argue it enabled him to successfully choreograph action montages with stock and new footage, and get his hands on some early visual effects (which largely consist of very poor \u2018animated\u2019 shots of the X-15\u2019s wings and fuselage heating up in the upper atmosphere).<\/p>\n

Veteran Howard W. Koch (Manchurian Candidate<\/strong>, Come Blow Your Horn<\/a><\/strong>) executive produced for what seems to have been an uncharacteristic film for Frank Sinatra\u2019s Essex Productions shingle; prolific B film and TV cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie handled the widescreen filming; and prolific TV editor Stanely Rabjohn managed to choreograph some effective montages using the stock and \u2018scope footage. Nathan Scott\u2019s score is a traditional mix of dramatic orchestral for the test sequences and disaster moments, and lush romanticism for scenes between the boys and their loyal, clich\u00e9d wives.<\/p>\n

In an ideal world, aircraft and NASA fans would get a Blu-ray edition sporting a gorgeous HD transfer, maybe an isolated score track, and a featurette interview with Donner on his feature film debut, plus a gallery of archival test footage in HD to relish, but for now there\u2019s this non-anamorphic (yes, really), bare bones 2004 DVD from MGM which still sports a clean transfer, but fails to deliver the goods.<\/p>\n

Among the cast, Mary Tyler Moore would begin her tenure on the hit series The Dick Van Dyke Show<\/strong> (1961-1966), whereas Charles Bronson drifted back into TV, occasionally popping up in films (including Donner\u2019s Lola<\/strong>) before emerging as a massive international star a decade later in films like Violent City<\/strong> (1970), The Valachi Papers <\/strong>(1972), and The Mechanic <\/strong>(1972).<\/p>\n

As for Richard Donner, The Omen<\/strong> (1976) was followed by a string of blockbusters & enduring cult films, including Superman<\/strong> (1978), Ladyhawke<\/strong> (1985), and the Lethal Weapon<\/strong> franchise before he informally retired after 2006\u2019s dismal 16 Blocks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2017 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

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Archival Documentaries:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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