Space Cowboys

The other day, I watched Space Cowboys for the second time on my television set. The adventure drama film is released in 2000. It is directed and written by Clint Eastwood.

The story follows four men who had not become astronauts when they were young. The quartet had already retired but they are asked by NASA to deal with a broken satellite, so they finally become astronauts and struggle to succeed the mission.  

Clint Eastwood played Frank, the leading light of the four men. Then Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner played Hawk, Jerry and Tank respectively. Frank and Hawk are both stubborn and poor losers. They sometimes make cutting jokes each other, which is amusing. Sutherland played a womanizer that Eastwood tended to play those days. I felt that he was not cut for the role. As for Garner, I had hardly watched movies that he is in. He looked simple but he gave a masterfully restrained performance in it. The four old astronauts trust and sympathize each other. Their strong tie is heartwarming and highly delightful to the end. I especially like the scene toward the ending, in which Jerry says, "We're a team, Frank!"

James Cromwell gave a good performance as the crafty Bob Gerson who used to be the four men's superior and become their one after they have started to work for NASA.

The excellent movie casually describes the contrast between how snobbish Gerson is and how the space cowboys live refreshingly until the last.