Great Film overall

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Mostly good, solid, well acted (especially by Robert Duvall and James Caan) story of behind the scenes politics among astronauts as we raced Russia towards the moon in the late 1960s. Gets a little soapy at times, some of the politics and science seem a little cheated, and key incidents are convenient and co-incidental. Production values, especially the special effects, are pretty weak. And Caan's astronaut is a little too open with his fears to be believed as a man of his position at that moment in history. On the other hand it's impressive that in 1969 someone made a space movie focusing on complex emotions and human behavior, not technology. The climax is a bit 'Hollywood', although at least a little more bittersweet than usual, if predictable (and a cheat). The small roles are well cast and played. Not really recognizably an Altman film, but certainly shows talent and is worth seeing.

Although this movie was made back in the 1960's, tonight was the first time that I ever saw it. My wife and I found it to be an enjoyable Friday night offering. This movie was not about special effects, meteors hurling through space, etc. Rather, it was about the people who comprise the team that organizes and develops the US Space program. As always, Robert Duvall was excellent, this time as an Astronaut who, because of political considerations, was removed as the person who was scheduled to become the first to land on the moon. Duvall played his character with just the right amount of anger and disappointment before becoming the instructor and motivator to the man who replaced him, also well played by James Caan. I wish the ending had been a bit longer but that is a mere quibble with what I feel is a fine movie

I've just got to throw my 2 cents in. I thought the Countdown was an excellent movie. The acting is what carries it for sure, but the special effects aren't bad either for the time period.I've seen Apollo 13 with Hanks and I thought this picture did a better job of portraying tension, ( although fictitious ) within the capsule. Robert Duvall is a superior actor as is James Caan. The overall dismay he portrays when not picked for the mission, and the subsiquent attempt to discredit Caan is great acting!

It's interesting that I initially had the same reaction as "anonymous" did to the lunar lander depicted in the movie. Sure, it looks like a Gemini capsule stuck on top of a descent stage, but guess what? When Altman made this movie, NASA actually had already planned the "Countdown" mission AND the Gemini lunar lander, although it was never used. BTW, I read Hank Searl's book "The Pilgrim Project" while I was in eighth grade and loved it.