HBO 25 -- Space Cowboys -- Braveheart
Tuesday, 8 July 2014 21:41![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsTwenty-fifth session: Space Cowboys (conclusion)
And now we go all The Right Stuff and march out with our spacesuits in slow motion. Cue patriotic music. Strap in. Launch Shuttle. And now we really have to sit back and relax, because if you worry about the details... well, then there's nothing left.
The premise is absurd on all levels. While I can appreciate the idea of geezer electronics and engineering, such that these kids today can't deal with 1960s and 70s technology, Team Daedelus would be going up as mission specialists. You don't get to fly a billion dollar Shuttle with a couple weeks of simulator training. And then the Ikon satellite. Something that big and we don't seem to know about it? Not suspicious about what all it does, what it looks like? And no one at NASA is screaming CIA Fail?
So, they launch from the Cape and ready to rendezvous. Even though a thousand mile high orbit is at the extreme end of Shuttle performance. And then there's the matter of orbital inclination. This wasn't a Soviet manned launch, but it is highly unlikely that they would've put Ikon in the same orbital inclination to the equator as capitalist running dog American manned missions, so we'd be stretching the Shuttle's crossrange capability... And THAT is why you just have to go with the flow.
Where'd they dig up that one astronaut? From the SEAL team lieutenant in The Abyss? And the flight mechanics are like the Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00 version of Shuttle flying.
But like so many guilty pleasure movies, we watch it for the cast, for the banter, for the magnificent and totally unrealistic special effects.
And for Space Cowboys, there's the killer final scene, zooming onto the Moon... with Sinatra. (grin)
Braveheart
I keep being amused by odd connections between movies in this project. Today's oddity is that Braveheart's production company is Icon. This after a whole movie about a Soviet Ikon satellite. What is doubly odd is than "ikon" isn't even the Russian word for "icon", so the whole symbolism is a crock.
Anyway... while not historically accurate, why would it be, I love this movie. And I love long movies. As I have commented elsewhere, a lot of these get edited for television. So given the level of violence and prudity, there are scenes and bits I haven't seen in a long time. Looks like some of his childhood usually gets cut.
I believe the opening date was around 1280 AD. So, there are going to be inevitable comparisons with Game of Thrones. Because people judge movies against movies more than historical details. Life was nasty, brutish and short back then. And men in power were jerks and women weren't even second-class. Prima nocta. Who comes UP with such nastiness? Not that we are innocent in 2014 either.
We're up to Murran's funeral. This is a two VHS tape movie, so Tuesday will be a full session of Braveheart.
----
Cool and overcast on the way in, warmer and sunnier on the way home.
Unit is busy today. There was a man standing in front of me at the front desk and he called for escort to HBO. I said make that two. Doug came up and since the other guy's wife was there, got him a wheelchair so we convoyed downstairs. All three tanks in use.
The one disadvantage of having the Blazer parked on the circle in front of Butterworth on a warm summer day -- it's much hotter inside than when it's been parked underground. That and people trying to be helpful. The slight hill means the driver door wants to shut. Just let me stand up from the wheelchair THEN we can worry about getting the door open.
Dr. Phil
And now we go all The Right Stuff and march out with our spacesuits in slow motion. Cue patriotic music. Strap in. Launch Shuttle. And now we really have to sit back and relax, because if you worry about the details... well, then there's nothing left.
The premise is absurd on all levels. While I can appreciate the idea of geezer electronics and engineering, such that these kids today can't deal with 1960s and 70s technology, Team Daedelus would be going up as mission specialists. You don't get to fly a billion dollar Shuttle with a couple weeks of simulator training. And then the Ikon satellite. Something that big and we don't seem to know about it? Not suspicious about what all it does, what it looks like? And no one at NASA is screaming CIA Fail?
So, they launch from the Cape and ready to rendezvous. Even though a thousand mile high orbit is at the extreme end of Shuttle performance. And then there's the matter of orbital inclination. This wasn't a Soviet manned launch, but it is highly unlikely that they would've put Ikon in the same orbital inclination to the equator as capitalist running dog American manned missions, so we'd be stretching the Shuttle's crossrange capability... And THAT is why you just have to go with the flow.
Where'd they dig up that one astronaut? From the SEAL team lieutenant in The Abyss? And the flight mechanics are like the Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00 version of Shuttle flying.
But like so many guilty pleasure movies, we watch it for the cast, for the banter, for the magnificent and totally unrealistic special effects.
And for Space Cowboys, there's the killer final scene, zooming onto the Moon... with Sinatra. (grin)
Braveheart
I keep being amused by odd connections between movies in this project. Today's oddity is that Braveheart's production company is Icon. This after a whole movie about a Soviet Ikon satellite. What is doubly odd is than "ikon" isn't even the Russian word for "icon", so the whole symbolism is a crock.
Anyway... while not historically accurate, why would it be, I love this movie. And I love long movies. As I have commented elsewhere, a lot of these get edited for television. So given the level of violence and prudity, there are scenes and bits I haven't seen in a long time. Looks like some of his childhood usually gets cut.
I believe the opening date was around 1280 AD. So, there are going to be inevitable comparisons with Game of Thrones. Because people judge movies against movies more than historical details. Life was nasty, brutish and short back then. And men in power were jerks and women weren't even second-class. Prima nocta. Who comes UP with such nastiness? Not that we are innocent in 2014 either.
We're up to Murran's funeral. This is a two VHS tape movie, so Tuesday will be a full session of Braveheart.
----
Cool and overcast on the way in, warmer and sunnier on the way home.
Unit is busy today. There was a man standing in front of me at the front desk and he called for escort to HBO. I said make that two. Doug came up and since the other guy's wife was there, got him a wheelchair so we convoyed downstairs. All three tanks in use.
The one disadvantage of having the Blazer parked on the circle in front of Butterworth on a warm summer day -- it's much hotter inside than when it's been parked underground. That and people trying to be helpful. The slight hill means the driver door wants to shut. Just let me stand up from the wheelchair THEN we can worry about getting the door open.
Dr. Phil
