If you love film, you likely have been to a repertory screening at some point in your life. The chance to watch an older movie, on the big screen, with a crowd as in love with the opportunity to watch a movie in theatres, maybe for the first time, or maybe to recapture that sense of wonder of when you first saw it. The idea of repertory showings of movies still exists, but it’s also become corporatized through Fathom Events and their annual TCM series. That’s not inherently a bad thing (it’s how I finally watched “Vertigo” and “Jaws” on the big screen), but it also takes away some of the pleasure of going to an art house theatre like Atlanta’s The Plaza, which constantly has older films on tap, as well as special showings; my experiences with “The Crow” and “The Shining” there are unmatched.
This year, I’m going to lean a lot into my favorite genre of all-time, science fiction, for this year’s entries in this series. Films I haven’t seen. Films that are overdue for review. And I’m even going to try to watch some classic TV series I haven’t before. Our bookend filmmaker had to be a fitting one, and though he’s most known for horror, John Carpenter has done plenty in this genre, starting with our first film for 2026, his 1988 satire, “They Live”.
Next up, for my annual birth year birthday watch (albeit a day early), I decided to watch Peter Hyams’s “Capricorn One”.
Viva La Resistance!
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
“Capricorn One” (1977)- A
“Capricorn One” is a continuation of the conspiratorial cinema that we got in the wake of Watergate and the assassinations of the ’60s. It takes one of humanity’s great triumphs, and uses it for the basis of a thriller where the government will lie- and kill to protect the lie- regardless of what innocent lives are harmed. Writer-director Peter Hyams has a lot of moving parts in the film, but ultimately, it finds a way to streamline it into a vicious narrative for the time, and one that still resonates now.
While I, in no way, believe the conspiracy theorists who think we never landed on the moon with Apollo 11, I can understand their hesitation in believing that we did. Such an undertaking, mere decades after we learned to fly, seems like a pipe dream, but to question our ability to go to the moon at that time also discounts the remarkable leaps in technology those decades saw, and the ingenuity of men and women to envision such a thing. “Capricorn One” feels born out of that skepticism, and it’s interesting how- nearly five decades later- the idea at its premise still feels out of reach. Not the series of events that happen afterwards; just the notion that humanity is ready to go to Mars.
The film begins with a space launch. The Capricorn One mission to Mars is preparing to leave Earth. Everything looks good. But shortly before launch, the astronauts- Brubaker (James Brolin), Willis (Sam Waterston) and Walker (O.J. Simpson)- are ordered out of the spacecraft. The launch continues, but without the crew, who has been taken to a secure location. There, they are told by NASA head Dr. James Kelloway (Hal Holbrook) the truth- NASA realized that the crew would never have made it back alive. And so, they have prepared an abandoned hanger as a soundstage to film the crew on “Mars,” and tearful interactions with their wives; meanwhile, the craft will make its orbit, and then, when it comes back, they will be trotted out like they went on the mission. As the craft returns, however, a faulty heat shield causes Capricorn One to burn up during reentry. When they learn the truth, the astronauts realize that their lives are, effectively, over. They escape, and go on the run.
Hyams’s structure of the film is not dissimilar to a lot of suspense thrillers, and even includes a reporter (played by Elliot Gould) who would start to dig deeper and start to find the truth. Gould’s Caulfield is at the launch, and doesn’t get too suspicious about things until a friend of his who works at Mission Control (Robert Walden) tips him off to some anomalies he found in the readings that make it seem like the broadcasts came from much closer than Mars and space. That takes Caulfield down the rabbit hole, and his life is now in danger; some key questioning of Brubaker’s wife (Brenda Vaccaro) only add to the mystery. Meanwhile, the astronauts are hunted in the desert, with minimal provisions. The anxiety in the film is goosed by the way the images by cinematographer Bill Butler (“Jaws”) and composer Jerry Goldsmith (whose work here reminded me of his later work on “Total Recall”) work in tandem to create tension. Even in the scenes where the astronauts are simply having to wait, there’s a sense of impending danger. Hyams isn’t looking to create anything bold here, but simply to get us into a world where the government will do anything to hide the truth, and it’s only through the determination of a handful of people where it will come to light. I wish that were something we didn’t have to think about in the real world, but “Capricorn One” is about reflecting reality more than giving us a safe fictionalized world to disappear into.
Previous “Repertory Revue” Films
“They Live” (1988)
“Starship Troopers” (1997)
“Welcome II the Terrordome” (1995)
“Battledream Chronicle” (2015)
“Born in Flames” (1983)
“Testament” (1983)
“Things to Come” (1936)
“When Worlds Collide” (1951)
“Metropolis” (2001)
“Soylent Green” (1973)
“Fire in the Sky” (1993)
“Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979)
“The Fly” (1958)
“Forbidden Planet” (1956)
“Capricorn One” (1977)
See Brian’s list of 2009 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2010 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2011 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2012 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2013 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2014 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2015 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2016 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2017 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2018 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2019 “Movies a Week” here.
See Brian’s list of 2020 “Repertory Revues” here.
See Brian’s list of 2021 “Repertory Revues” here.
See Brian’s list of 2022 “Repertory Revues” here.
See Brian’s list of 2023 “Repertory Revues” here.
See Brian’s list of 2024 “Repertory Revues” here.
See Brian’s list of 2025 “Repertory Revues” here.
