utgard14 The Americans and Russians are in a race to the moon. For political reasons, Air Force pilot Robert Duvall is replaced by civilian James Caan as the astronaut for the mission. This leads to personal conflicts between the two and general doubts about whether Caan can pull the mission off. Director Robert Altman's space drama is a mostly unimpressive, static effort. If I didn't know better I would assume it was made-for-TV. Lacking in special effects and choosing instead to focus on the personal drama between the various parties involved in the space program, it can be a tough slog at times. It's very dry and has long stretches where it's boring. It's also lacking in the kind of suspense necessary for a story about a race to the moon. Anti-climactic ending doesn't help, either. If you're a fan of movies about the space program perhaps you should check it out. Otherwise I can't recommend it.

Film_Angenieux Not a great film but very much worth it for Altman fans. In many ways it's a conventional cold war drama, but it has some wicked resonances if you see the Robert Duvall astronaut character as what he was surely meant to be: an over the top version of John Glenn: a boy scout rah rah guy who can't stand the much hipper, laid back James Caan, who is a stand-in for the real astronaut Al Shepard. (Wolfe's The Right Stuff, if I recall, has useful material on the mutual distrust between Glenn and Shepard.) Altman tries a few tricks for which he is later famous. The primary one is overlapping dialogue. Altman hated the formal style of traditional films in which everyone speaks in complete sentences and never overlaps. You can see the overlapping here, though not to the degree that comes through in later films like M*A*S*H and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Still, the innovation was enough to infuriate the studio execs when they began viewing the rough cut. Hey! We can't understand half of what the actors are saying! So they fired Altman about nine-tenths of the way through shooting. Watch closely and toward the end of the picture, you'll see a change in style as the replacement director takes over. It's much more stilted (especially in the press conference). And I recall (though can't be sure at this remove, I haven't seen or read about the picture in decades) that the original ending was a tragedy, which was changed to a happy one instead.The most effective aspect of Altman's interest in sound design was what he did when Caan loses contact with ground control as he approaches the moon. Altman heightens anxiety (Caan is already worried that Duvall is endangering his life) when the radio contact picks up static and it gets hard to hear. Caan begins to feel all alone out there, millions of miles from earth. And so do we, instinctively...we want to hear what Mission Control is saying, and their words keep breaking up. Very clever: using +bad+ sound to make viewers unconsciously uneasy. It's a great way to accomplish your goal on a lower budget project.

justincward Released two months before '2001: A Space Odyssey', and on a soap opera scale compared to that, 'Countdown' comes from a time when movies didn't have to have huge budgets, big stars or auteur directors to get national distribution: I saw it as a second feature (remember them? - to 'Ice Station Zebra', I think, a far worse movie) in one of the now defunct three small cinemas in my home town. It's pretty formulaic, with a 'time clock' plot, a little bit of character play, a fair bit of topicality, and for its time and budget, a reasonable stab at gritty space realism, compared to the stagey, squeaky 'Star Trek' universe that had boldly gone on TV only two years before, and Kubrick's tour de force that was to follow shortly. Interesting as a snapshot of cinema history, with a director and lead actor (and Robert Duvall) who went on to join the A-list, which nobody knew about then. They don't make 'em like this any more; or if they do, they go straight to DVD.

minimal-3 Looking at a film made 38 years ago (2006) about semi-reality was an actual bore. Forget Robert Altman made it (he is not that great during the next 38 years as Altman fans would have you believe) It was much more reminiscent of the soap operas of the time. I found nothing of any great interest here. The Duval/Caan game playing was lame and many of the other characters were overplayed. Yes, it is easy for me 38 years later with all the film and acting innovations that have taken place to make these comments but I simply was not entertained by the script/dialog/ and Altman's attempt at an auteur film. I will also throw in here I am not an Altman fan, or I would not spend money to see a film just because Altman made it. Michael Mann I would without question just as a comparison of my tastes.Duval is another consideration. I saw a film made in 1971 by Duval, which he claims, is his best work that was real 'art'. Quiet, simple, Wm.Faulkner 14 page tale of life in the Appalachians many years ago.This review is about Altman and 'Countdown'. The film is average at best and the auteur just starting an incredible career shows some flash of genius to come.