Space Cowboys

Overview

In this adventure drama, four men passed over by the space program get one last chance to be heroes and live out their dreams. Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood), Hawk Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones), Jerry O'Neill (Donald Sutherland), and Tank Sullivan (James Garner) were top pilots within an elite Air Force squadron and on the fast track to becoming the first Americans in space in the early 1950s. However, when NASA was established, the pilots were cut out of the loop; Corvin went on to become an aerospace engineer, Hawkins continued on as a freelance pilot, O'Neill became an astrophysicist with a sideline in designing roller coasters, and Sullivan took up preaching as a Baptist minister. Years later, a Russian satellite's guidance system has started to malfunction, and it is expected to crash into the Earth within a matter of weeks. The system is identical to the one Corvin designed for Skylab, so NASA head Bob Gerson (James Cromwell) asks Corvin to help him with the emergency mission to repair the satellite. Corvin agrees under one condition -- that he be sent up to do the repairs himself, with Hawkins, O'Neill, and Sullivan as his crew. Clint Eastwood directed Space Cowboys while also starring as Frank Corvin; his supporting cast includes Marcia Gay Harden, Courtney B. Vance, Loren Dean, and William Devane.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/17/2001
UPC:	0085391872238
Original Release:	2000
Rating:	PG13
Source:	Warner Home Video

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Clint Eastwood	Frank Corvin
Tommy Lee Jones	Hawk Hawkins
Donald Sutherland	Jerry O'Neil
James Garner	Tank Sullivan
James Cromwell	Bob Gerson
Marcia Gay Harden	Sara Holland
William Devane	Eugene Davis
Loren Dean	Ethan Glance
Courtney B. Vance	Roger Hines
Barbara Babcock	Barbara Corvin
Rade Serbedzija	General Vostov
Blair Brown	Dr. Anne Caruthers
John Asher	Young Jerry
Lauren Cohn	Teacher
Eli Craig	Young Hawk
Arthur Cybulski	Press Reporter #2
Georgia Emelin	Jerry's Girlfriend
Gerald Emerick	T-38 Pilot
Erica Grant	Female Engineer
Tim Halligan	Qualls
Jon Hamm	Young Pilot #2
J.M. Henry	Centrifuge Tech
Deborah Hope	Female Engineer
Cooper Huckabee	Trajectory Engineer
Deborah Jolly	Cocktail Waitress
Alexandr Kuznetzov	Russian Engineer
Jay Leno	Jay Leno
John Linton	Male Astronaunt #1
Lamont Lofton	Ksc Guard
Michael Louden	Young Pilot #1
James MacDonald	Capcom
Jock MacDonald	Press Reporter
Matt McColm	Young Tank
Kate McNeil	Female Astronaut #1
Don Michaelson	Nasa Doctor
Karen Mistal	Female Astronaunt #2
Steve Monroe	Waiter
Manning Mpinduzi-Mott	Press Reporter (1958)
Renee Olstead	Little Girl
Gordon Owens	Simsupe
Paul Pender	Jbc Security Guard
Rick Scarry	State Dept. Official
Steve Stapenhorst	Vice President
Anne Stedman	Jason's Girlfriend
Toby Stephens	Young Frank
Nils Allen Stewart	Tiny
Hayden Tank	Andrew
Mark Thomason	Mission Control Tech
Stephen West	Construction Tech
Billie Worley	Young Gerson
Chris Wylde	Jason

Technical Credits

Clint Eastwood	Director,Producer
David Amborn	Special Effects
Leah Anton	Songwriter
Darryl Athons	Costumes/Costume Designer
Hans Bjerno	Camera Operator
Stella Bogh	Songwriter
Henry Bumstead	Production Designer
Steven E. Bunyea	Special Effects
Michael E. Burke	Special Effects
Stephen Campanelli	Camera Operator
Tami Carter	Songwriter
Troy Anthony Cephers	Stunts
Albert Champagne	Stunts
Joel Cox	Editor
Tom Crabson	Stunts
Ann Culotta	Costumes/Costume Designer
Jan Davis	Stunts
Jeff A. Denes	Special Effects
Jeff Doran	Songwriter
Gilbert Draper	Special Effects
Ken Ebert	Special Effects
Jeff Eith	Stunts
Steve Ellsworth	Costumes/Costume Designer
David Farmer	Sound/Sound Designer
Bobbie Faye Ferguson	Consultant/advisor
Cliff Fleming	Stunts
Hartley Folstad	Stunts
Tom Frazier	Special Effects
Richard C. Goddard	Set Decoration/Design
Andrew Grant	Animator
Jack N. Green	Cinematographer
Karl Gulledge	Stunts
Jim Hagadorn	Songwriter
Cliff Happy	Stunts
Bruce Hayes	Special Effects
Hal Hickel	Animator
Steve Hinton	Stunts
Deborah Hopper	Costumes/Costume Designer
Jennifer Howard	Songwriter
Phyllis Huffman	Casting
Ken Kaufman	Screenwriter
Liz Keigley	Casting
Sari E. Keigley	Casting
Howard Klausner	Screenwriter
Andrew Lazar	Producer
Jameson Levin	Special Effects
Robert Lorenz	Asst. Director
David Majors	Stunts
Walt Martin	Sound Mixer,Sound/Sound Designer
Christopher Mitchell	Animator
Russell Nave	Special Effects
Lennie Niehaus	Score Composer
Mark Noel	Special Effects
George Orrison	Stunts
Joseph G. Pacelli	Set Decoration/Design
Joe Pancake	Special Effects
Francis Pennington	Special Effects
Matt Pierson	Musical Direction/Supervision
Gary T. Pike	Stunts
Steve Riley	Special Effects
Charlene Roberson	Makeup
Tom Rooker	Executive Producer
Dominic V. Ruiz	Special Effects
Tom Sanders	Stunts
Jeff Senour	Stunts
Mark Sheaffer	Special Effects
Pau Sklar	Stunts
Dwight Thomas Smith	Special Effects
Brian Sorbo	Songwriter
Joe Stone	Stunts
Jeff Sutherland	Songwriter
Jack Gammon Taylor	Art Director
Moe Viletto	Stunts
Jim Wilkey	Stunts
Bryan A. Wohlers	Special Effects
Andy Wong	Animator
Sylvia Wong	Animator
John Wonser	Special Effects
B.J. Worth	Stunts
Dana Wozniak	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

A quartet of aging but still popular stars strut their stuff in Space Cowboys, a rollicking adventure film that delivers a playful poke in the eye to youth-obsessed Hollywood. Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner, and Donald Sutherland -- representing 150 combined years of experience in front of the camera -- play retired Air Force men who washed out of America’s space program four decades earlier. Their collective expertise in now-obsolete computer technology suddenly makes these geriatric flyers invaluable: Repairs are desperately needed on a failing, missile-loaded Russian satellite, and the old-timers are launched into space to do what the younger astronauts can’t. Eastwood, who also directs, depicts the space program’s training regimen with a documentarian's fidelity and elicits laughs by showing himself and his costars huffing their ways through its rigors. The film’s character-driven script provides each of the veteran stars with pithy dialogue and scene-stealing moments, and their spirited interplay is even more entertaining than the mission itself. There’s no shortage of action, thrills, or suspense, but Space Cowboys is also warmly humorous, wistful, and elegiac, and thus ranks among Eastwood’s best movies. DVD supplements include behind-the-scenes footage, documentaries (covering both the film’s production and NASA’s operations), theatrical trailers, special DVD-ROM content, and web access.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

An unusually populist comedy for a director of such normally refined tastes, this geriatric space adventure from Clint Eastwood spoofs the aging of the Baby Boomer generation with broad appeal, but flags in its poorly structured third act. While Space Cowboys gets off to an interesting start in a flashback sequence that casts lookalike actors with their voices dubbed by the film's stars, the story's central conceit (four aging would-be astronauts getting one last chance to blast off) is exhaustively rehashed, making for a tiring set-up. Once the quartet of creaking seniors is in training for their mission, however, the film finds its legs and purpose, sending up the idea of vitamin-popping oldsters rediscovering their right stuff with zeal and relish. When its characters finally achieve orbit, the film loses its way again, stumbling with a subplot involving an egotistical young colleague who botches a job and the unexpected illness of a central figure. Nevertheless, Space Cowboys is about two-thirds of a fine and enjoyably risible comedy that is a bounce back for Eastwood after stumbling badly with his last directorial effort, True Crime (1999).

All Movie Guide - Karl Williams

Mr. Eastwood is ordinarily a rather earthbound director, more interested in the efficient conveyance of story and character than in visual beauty, but here the special effects by industrial Light and Magic add depth and richness to the movie without distracting from the greater pleasure of watching 4 great actors reclaim their prime...

New York Times - A.O. Scott

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