A Little March Sunshine

There is open water on the river, and the snow is melting away. In the sunshine, it's warm enough to walk outside, but the melt-off and the humidity feel chilly in the fresh air.






The geese are returning, and my thoughts were with a movie that debuted in 1983, based on the Tom Wolfe bestseller. The Right Stuff won four academy awards and was nominated for best picture. Sam Shepard was nominated for his portrayal of Chuck Yaeger, test pilot and the first man to break the sound barrier.


The beginning of the movie is visual, with little dialogue, and lots of great aural stimulation or sound scene-setting. The Joshua trees in the desert, the romance and mystery portrayed in this story - its exceptional. Themes of human greatness - men pushing the outside of the envelope - intermingled with wonder and ethereal beauty.


The narrator spoke of a spiritual demon that lived in the air, behind the sound barrier. Men had died as their planes shook apart as the test craft approached Mach 1 - 750 MPH.


Although much of the movie goes on to explore other men's paths to becoming astronauts for the NASA program, there is an iconic scene early on that is hard to forget. Sam as Chuck comes riding up upon the airfield from the desert - sees the Bell experimental craft X-1 fueling up, frozen liquid jet fuel billowing out like stream from a locomotive, the hiss eerie - the contrasts in the desert make it look like a space ship.

Sam Shepard rides an unusual roan horse - it's a gorgeous reddish brown, with some subtle white speckled spots in its coat - and the horse is unique, intelligent. There's another movie horse; the one from Dances with Wolves. Only a few stand out.

There is a cat and mouse game on horseback between Glennis and Chuck Yaeger - breathing hard, pounding hoof beats - the couple so happy - but then CY falls off his horse and cracks a couple of ribs.

Chuck is sent off by his wife to punch a hole in the sky. On Oct. 14, 1947, Chuck's X-1 was dropped from under a B-29 to beat the sound barrier and push the envelope. He got it done. He pushed past Mach 1.

Because of the pending Cold War, The press was not allowed to report the breaking of the sound barrier. We had secrets from the Russians, The movie goes on to explore the debut of the Mercury Space Program, and to follow the lives of the first seven astronauts. Scott Crossfield, another pilot, would reach Mach 2, or 1500 MPH, in a D-5. But space programs need funding.

An astronaut's line in the movie is, no buck$ - no Buck Rogers. The sky's the limit - but somebody is going to have to pay for it.