I'll be entirely honest straight away and open with the blunt opinion/statement that "Capricorn One" isn't a very good movie. The script is often poorly written, with abysmal dialogues and unclear sub plots being the most noticeable painful shortcomings. There are also too many overlong and tedious sequences, underdeveloped characters and a downright ridicule climactic battle-sequence featuring an antique and ramshackle crop duster versus two hi-tech governmental helicopters! But guess what? All this doesn't really matter because "Capricorn One" also has one of THE most shockingly brilliant and uncomfortably disturbing premises of all times! I'll leave in the middle what came first: writer/director Peter Hyams' ideas for this film or the existing conspiracy theories around the 1969 Apollo moon landing. It's probably the latter, but fact remains that Hyams was the courageous man who turned the hypothesis into a big Hollywood story AND even managed to engage NASA as a sponsor and technical adviser for a tale that basically banters them.I tell you, the premise is truly amazing! The moment is finally there after years of preparation and hard work. A not-so-large crowd has gathered to witness the launch of the very first manned US space mission to Mars, but literally seconds before lift-off, the three "hero"-astronauts are instructed to leave their capsule and subsequently get escorted to a secretive desert location. First they receive a long and depressing speech from NASA director James Kelloway, about how the American public - including the President - isn't interested in expensive space programs anymore and how potential failures aren't tolerated. The three astronauts (Brubaker, Willis and Walker) silently listen to their superior and immediately understand what is expected from them. They are forced to comply with the simulation of the whole prestigious mission. For months and months, they stay at the hangar where the Martian landscapes and a replica of their rocket Capricorn One have been recreated to fool the TV- networks and their wives. However, pretending to be circling around in outer space is easy, but what'll happen when the mission is about to come to an end? Meanwhile, a freelance journalist (Elliot Gould) becomes suspicious after a tip from an inside NASA collaborator. "Capricorn One" is utmost powerful and compelling for as long as it remains a tense (and talkative) conspiracy thriller. Peter Hyams exploits the surreal but simultaneously plausible premise, but his film runs into trouble as soon as story-complexities arise or when the obligatory action/thriller footage has to be delivered. The second half of the film is quite boring, even though that is clearly supposed to be the exciting half, and the whole climax is a weak & desperate attempt to enforce a "happy/truth-will-come-out" ending. Or perhaps the ending of "Capricorn One" is dumb and goofy because NASA only wants us to believe that such a large-scaled conspiracy is impossible and unrealistic! After all, yours truly isn't 100% convinced that the landing on the moon ever take place. Ha :-)

To put it politely : this is not the most sophisticated and accomplished movie ever made about space exploration, just as it is not the most sophisticated and accomplished movie ever made about propaganda, conspiracy and deception.Strangely "Capricorn One" somehow succeeds in gripping the imagination and telling a rousing, suspenseful story. I suppose that at least part of the attraction lies in an almost archetypal sense of tragedy : here we've got three men of genuine courage and accomplishment, who are manipulated and betrayed by parasites, cheats and liars. It's like seeing lions surrounded by hyenas, or hunting hounds surrounded by sewer rats.There is also a cleverly devised atmosphere of claustrophobia and paranoia.It's strange how much our culture has changed since "Capricorn One". There have always been conspiracy theorists peddling themes like "The moon landings were faked". These people used to be members of a minuscule fringe movement, viewed with a mixture of pity and ridicule. Nowadays the madmen have taken over the asylum : look up "moon landings" on the internet and you can find reams and reams and reams of text explaining, for instance, how NASA is too incompetent to operate a coffee machine, how the earth is flat, how the earth is hexagonal, how Mr. Kubrick was paid a fortune in order to forge footage, how Mr. Kennedy struck a deal with aliens, how Apollo Thirteen was Apollo Four, Five, Six-and-a-half, Nineteen or Thirty, how it's impossible to take a picture of a celestial object, how Einstein correctly predicted that no human could leave earth, and so on (and on, and on, and on). These people have grown - not only in number but also in stridency, aggression, influence and arrogance.It worries the hell out of me.

If you're willing to overdose on suspension of disbelief pills and overlook the multitude of absurdities in Capricorn One, you can enjoy it for what it is: a silly, campy, thriller that only the most gullible conspiracy theorists would take seriously.Okay, the idea of (1) a shady element within NASA planning and executing a plot within a few weeks designed to fake a mission to Mars AND FOOL THE REST OF NASA, (2) erasing the existence of a suspicious engineer without anyone else at NASA, his neighborhood, family, etc . . noticing, (3) O.J. Simpson being taken seriously as an actor, and so on is all perfectly absurd. But hey, it's only a movie, and Telly Savalas' cameo is worth the price of admission.Bottom line: pop this movie into the DVD player, open a beer, remove your brain, and enjoy this generally fun movie. If you believe any of it is remotely plausible, you'll believe Oliver Stone's "JFK" as well.

NASA launches Capricorn One into space on its way to Mars. The space program is under financial stress and the President can't even bother to show up for the launch. The astronauts Charles Brubaker (James Brolin), Peter Willis (Sam Waterston) and John Walker (O. J. Simpson) are surprised to be secreted away. Director Dr. James Kelloway (Hal Holbrook) tells them that the life support system was found fatally flawed. Instead of scrubbing the mission, Kelloway pressures them to fake the Martian landing. Few people would be involved in the cover up. A technician discovers the conspiracy but then he disappears which alarms his investigative journalist friend Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould).It's an interesting premise for the paranoid conspiracy era. The story has great potential. I prefer staying more with the astronauts and the reporter. I don't think most of the scenes at the control room are that compelling. The movie feels a little scattered until the plane helicopters chase. That is a great sequence. It is a thrilling stunt and amazingly shot.