SYNOPSICS
X-15 (1961) is a English movie. Richard Donner has directed this movie. David McLean,Charles Bronson,Ralph Taeger,Brad Dexter are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1961. X-15 (1961) is considered one of the best Drama,History movie in India and around the world.
At the height of the Cold War during the 1960s the U.S. Air Force and NASA tested an experimental rocket-powered research aircraft code-named X-15.The X-15 experiments were conducted at Edwards Air Force Base.The X-15 aircraft set altitude and speed records by reaching the edge of outer space.The project is managed by U.S. Air Force Colonel Craig Brewster and scientist Tom Deparma. The main test pilots are Matt Powell, Colonel Lee Brandon and Major Ernest Wilde.During the test flights the X-15 aircraft is dropped from a B-52 Stratofortress mother ship before starting its engine.The whole test team is enthusiastic about the project but the project is plagued by setbacks and near disasters right from the start.
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X-15 (1961) Reviews
Good "Space Race" Nostalgia
Baby Boomers like me often wonder why manned space exploration seems so far behind the expectations of the 1960's. Instead of seeing humans walk on Mars, we're left with an all-but-useless space station serviced by 40-year-old Russian capsules and dangerously obsolescent American shuttles. X-15 offers a glimpse of how things might have turned out. It's hard to believe there actually was an alternative to such dead-ends programs as Project Apollo, Skylab, and the Space Shuttle. The legendary rocketeer Werner Von Braun thought that America should enter space in stages: i.e., build a reusable orbiter, construct a large, permanent space station, and then use that platform to construct inexpensive, reusable vehicles for further exploration. Unfortunately, President John Kennedy's Race to the Moon made such a logical course of action impossible. X-15 shows, in part, how the U.S. Air Force wanted to fulfill Von Braun's vision. The film is, for the most part, historically and technologically accurate. Few remember how exciting the X-15 rocket plane was as it left Earth's atmosphere years before the "tin cans" of Project Mercury. Despite negative claims from NASA (which coveted the millions of space research dollars going to the Air Force) a follow-up of the X-15, the X-20 Dyna Soar, might have orbited the Earth by the mid-1960's. Interestingly, the film includes cameo appearances of actual network TV correspondents who were convinced the X-15 would help America establish a permanent presence in space. A combination of factors: the urgency of Kennedy's race to the moon; the economic demands of the Viet Nam War; and reasonable fears of militarizing space killed off the Air Force's more-logical approach to earth orbit. The film's dramatic climax, which depicts an X-15 actually orbiting the Earth, is a clear case of cinematic license. (The real X-15 was capable of sub-orbital flights only.) Nevertheless, a larger, two-man version, the X-15B, was designed by North American Rockwell, and there are many that still believe it could have achieved low earth orbit. It's clear that director Richard Donner was given unprecedented access to the Air Force's facilities at Edwards Air Force Base/Dryden Research Center. The battle for funding with NASA was a make-or-break challenge, and the USAF clearly recognized the value of the mass media, and of providing a heroic and practical image of its X-15 program to American filmgoers. Although the film X-15 might be criticized on a number of artistic levels, it nevertheless stands as a valuable bit of early-1960's nostalgia that offers a rare glimpse into a forgotten chapter of space exploration.
Nice entertainment for X-plane lovers
As a teenager I don't see myself falling into the average 6 voting. Even though the 60s is not my decade, I still love this movie. It should be appreciated for the simply its existence. Besides the Right Stuff, we don't really see much of them depict the space race so specifically. Starring MTM and Bronson is better than random actors anyways. At least we see how fine MTM use to be. Inviting popular movie stars showed how important this project is. The power of how much people cares during that decade is amazing compare to the significance of it today. Usually, how much public cares indicates how well the technological advancement is going to turn out.Unfortunately that enthusastism is long gone... You won't see another movie over space exploration anymore.
Remember when?
This is one of those flicks you find by accident. You see a few familiar names in the cast, notice the early date, then rent it on a whim. And if you're like me, you say to yourself, "Good choice." A space film without all the invasion drama. This dealt with actual exploration. And unlike a lot of sci-fi, seemed to take it seriously. Mary Tyler Moore in an early role, and she looked good. The talent was blossoming. Bronson played his usual strong, weary type. He never had a prayer as a sex symbol, but he was underrated as an actor. This is in need of reviving.
Early Bronson film re experimental rocketplane into space
From the late 50s, this early Charles Bronson starrer dramatized the real-life development of the rocket-powered X-15 experimental aircraft, which was launched from the belly of a B-52 bomber and was flown by test pilots to high speeds and high altitude in an effort to touch the edge of space. The X-15 was a successful part of the development program that also included precursors like the X-1 and the Stiletto, and later produced pilots for NASA and technology used in early space shuttle concepts. I saw the film more than once on its initial run, and it seems to me this was sometimes double-billed with the somewhat similar air power goings-on of Karl Maulden's BOMBERS B-52.
Better as a documentary
Just about 40 years ago I saw this movie in an Air Force theater where I was stationed. It was the very first movie that I saw after basic training. I thought the movie was terriffic then when I first saw it in wide-screen. I just saw it on a premium channel without commercials but it was not in wide-screen so a lot of it was missing. The flying scenes were very good as they were probably mostly shot by the Air Force but the family life scenes off-duty were very boring and predictable and mostly used a filler. What makes me smile is that the characters were just like those in a soap opera, in other words all the wives are gorgeous and the pilots were all perfect male specimens. Since I first saw this movie 40 years ago I have seen many documentarys on tv about the X-15 which were far more interesting and real than this hokey movie. I might be wrong but I thought that in the theater 40 years ago the movie started with Jimmy Stewart at his desk in his Air Force uniform but this was not in this version but I am not sure.