Product Description

No Description Available.
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: PG
Release Date: 17-FEB-1998
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9510 in DVD
• Brand: BROLIN,JAMES
• Released on: 1998-02-18
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 123 minutes

Amazon.com
Thanks to repeated showings on cable television and home video, this speculative thriller has built quite a loyal following since its release in 1978. The provocative "what if?" scenario still packs a punch, even if it is not always believable. James Brolin, Sam Waterston, and O.J. Simpson star as three astronauts who agree to spare the government embarrassment by faking their historic landing on Mars after their spacecraft is determined to be unsafe for blastoff. When a scheming mission controller (Hal Holbrook) plots to kill the astronauts in a staged capsule fire, the trio embarks on a dangerous mission to expose the truth. Elliott Gould costars as the journalist determined to crack the conspiracy, and director Peter Hyams turns up the tension with an exciting chase sequence involving Telly Savalas as an eccentric barnstormer who comes to Gould's aid. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Wonderful forgotten movie - Lousy transfer
What a joy to see this movie again. I had forgotten how suspenseful it was, not having seen it since its theater release. Even O.J. Simpson can't ruin it. Of course, it pushes the limits of believability from time to time...but never far enough to make it unenjoyable.

Now for the bad part....this movie definitely deserves a better DVD than this. It is widescreen, but not enhanced as it should be. But worse...the picture has areas where it almost appears as if it is being projected against a dirty screen. Other areas of the movie are blurred...amplified when viewed in a large format.

I can't NOT recommend this DVD...only because it is the only one available of this film. But I sure wish someone would do the movie justice.

the ultimate 70's conspiracy thriller
When I was 9 yrs old I lived next door to a mall where a theater complex (one of the first Multi-plexes) was erected just around the time of this film's release; I must've seen Capricorn One at least 6 times in that theater alone as well as countless times on VHS and on TV and I guess i always grew up thinking that things are never what they appear to be and i have never had any trouble believing the worst of my government and I think Capricorn One probably had a lot to do with that. After a decade of Oliver Stone movies and the X files it might be easy to forget that CAPRICORN ONE had it all first.There are some memorable set-pieces: The slow pullback from the astronauts shining faceplate to reveal the soundstage while the rah-rah speech is recited, the insane Bi-plane and helicopter chase that ends the film. My personal favorite among the scenes are those involving Elliot Gould and his travails at the hands of shadowy govt G. Gordon Liddy types, who first erase all traces of his pal from NASA ( a nicely worried Robert Walden) and then proceed to attempt to assassinate and then just generally screw with him. Other plusses: a grip of excellent characterizations--from James Brolin's flinty-eyed commanding astronaut,OJ Simpson's stoic but warily paranoid fellow astronaut,Hal Holbrooke oozing apologies and menace as the NASA hatchet man-- everyone gives it their all to produce a first rate thriller. And the film benefits enormously from Jerry Goldsmiths pounding and ominous score; it continues to remain one of my all time favorite soundtracks. Bravo to all involved.

Great trivia question to go along with escapist fun
Quick, what 1970s B-movie co-stars Barbra Streisand's former and current husbands? That would be the extremely enjoyable Capricorn One. The husbands? Ex-hubby Elliot Gould and current spouse James Brolin of course.Ironically, the film centers around these two characters with journalist Gould trying to find fugitive astronaut Brolin before the government kills both of them. Hal Holbrook is up to his usual evil shenanigans as the bad guy and the always-underrated Brenda Vaccaro has some poignant scenes as Brolin's "widow" who is told her husband and two other astronauts -- O.J. Simpson and Sam Waterston -- have been killed upon re-entry to earth on a mission from Mars. It seems they never got there though because the government found a glitch in the well-publicized mission that made the trip impossible. Capricorn One is amazingly suspenseful, funny and features an enjoyable cast. The ending is appropriately uplifting and you have to love any movie where normally intense Waterston provides the comic relief as the cutup astronaut!!!!