There are some great moments in this story of the first American astronauts: the special effects work and aerial photography, for example, could hardly be bettered. And the film tries hard to tell the story of human beings as well as hardware. But, at more than three hours, you long for the excision of unnecessary material and an earlier splashdown. The film attempts to tell parallel stories, although it never quite successfully integrates them. Yeager (perhaps Sam Shepard's best film performance) is a test pilot of the old breed, breaking the sound barrier and scorching his plane though Mach 2. He wants nothing to do with the 'suicide squadron' who volunteer for astronaut training, although he stares a little wistfully as their trail of glory in the sky. He remains, you feel, what the film's makers really consider the 'right stuff'. Creditable performances from a long star cast bolster this film which, despite its flaws, has enough inspired sequences to make it linger in the memory.

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