Gee, I'm really sorry this movie seemed "slow" to some viewers, who were probably holding a remote. This is NOT a "TV" movie; it is a theater movie, and a big screen theater at that. So all those who "commented" on it but only saw it on a TV in a pan-and-scan version, I have news for you - you didn't see the real movie. Sorry, dudes..As for MAROONED, it was a valiant and mostly factual attempt to tell the story about marooned astronauts back when they were world superstars and EVERYONE knew their names, unlike now. On top of that, there had not only been a successful moon landing just before the release of the film but after that there was an ACTUAL "Marooned" with Apollo 13 - and the studio rereleased the film to more acclaim. So not to beat up on anyone, but the second contextual point is "You had to be there." And a lot of you obviously weren't.The acting performances are uniformly excellent, from Gregory Peck giving a typically "I'm there" stint to the actresses who do more than just back up their husbands. There is even a glint of the kind of showboating we now take as normal during the event.Prescient, really. The striving for a solution to the problem is done first scientifically and then in the style of the Old America: we'll try the best way we can with the best person for the job, danger notwithstanding. And I would add that this is the very last movie I saw in a theater where when the solution to the problem was found, the audience (who had been dead silent for at least ten minutes) burst into spontaneous applause and cheering. Seen that lately in a theater or in your living room? Didn't think so.So, again, probably the finest fact-based movie on space faring in its time; unfortunately since then the notoriety of astronauts has disappeared, the romance and bravura of space travel as well, and as such a movie like this probably seems hokey to new viewers. Then again,some people think early Picassos are just scribbles..

I am old enough to remember the 1960s space program. It was a race to get to the moon by the end of the decade, a goal President Kennedy announced right here in Houston, at Rice University. I was still in high school but I remember it.I also remember how fascinated most of us ordinary citizens were with the early space program, not just the results but behind the scenes, how everything worked. This movie took advantage of that, not only telling the story of the stranded astronauts but showing us in fairly deliberate detail the conversations between mission control on the ground and the astronauts in space. For that reason it moves very slowly in places, and takes well over 2 hours running time. But had I seen this in 1969 the pace would have been just right.Gregory Peck gets top billing as Charles Keith, the head of the USA space program, the guy who makes the hard decisions, the man who talks directly with the President. When the 3 astronauts can't come back to Earth after 5 months docked with a space lab, he has the final say whether they will be abandoned or a very risky, untested rescue mission will be rushed into service. In the end he is guided by the President who tells him by phone they needed to save those guys.The 3 stranded astronauts are played by Richard Crenna as Jim Pruett, James Franciscus as Clayton Stone, and Gene Hackman as Buzz Lloyd. They are helpless. The idiot light on the dash board says the retro rockets have fired, but they haven't. They don't have a clue how to fix it, nor does Houston, and they only have a few days' oxygen left. David Janssen is Ted Dougherty one the mission control team, an astronaut himself, and he volunteers to pilot the untested reentry vehicle on the untested rocket to try to perform a rescue, all with a hurricane bearing down on Cape Kennedy. Fortunately the eye will pass over creating a window of calm air.Overall it is a very nicely done movie, it even spends quite an amount of time on the wives and their worry about their husbands. It gives a pretty good, though fictional, indication of what the inner workings of the space program was like back then.I saw it via the TV network 'Movies!'.

I don't like "space" movies. Almost ever. But I liked this one. I was tempted to Google the film ahead of time, but resisted the temptation...and I'm glad I did. I didn't know where this was going. Would the marooned astronauts be saved? It seemed like they must. But would that be realistic. Maybe some would survive. But who? As the film progresses, those are the questions you will find yourself asking. Suffice it to say that I found the ending to be a reasonable balance between "realistic" and "feel good".Considering that we had landed on the moon only a few months before this was released, it was an interesting risk that the filmmakers took. And for its time, the special effects here were really quite good.But the real strength of the film here is the script and the acting.Was Gregory Peck ever anything less than brilliant. In a sense, this must have been a difficult film for him. He is mostly almost a "talking head" here, with most of his dialog being between him on land and an astronaut in space; not the typical back and forth dialog. And, in parts of the film he played the bearer of bad news...but he parlayed even that into a good, solid performance.Of the 3 astronauts, James Franciscus put in the best performance, followed by David Janssen, followed by Richard Crenna. Gene Hackman was not very impressive here, although admittedly he had a relatively thankless role. The 3 wives of the astronauts -- Lee Grant, Nancy Kovack, and Mariette Hartley are all but irrelevant to the story; they're there because they needed to be there...nothing more.A very good, solid film. If I were to criticize anything it would be that the film could have been edited more tightly and not have gone over 120 minutes (it is 134 minutes).

for whatever reason,Marooned just didn't do a heck of a lot for me.i found it a b it too slow going,and too melodramatic at times.that's not to say it's a poorly made film.on the contrary,it's well done for the most part.the acting is believable from all involved.and the premise is one that should be gripping:three astronauts end up stuck in space,while their oxygen runs low.but for some reason it failed too engage me on a more than moderate level.the only thing i can think of is the dialogue,which was sometimes a bit hokey,in my opinion.still,this is just one person's opinion.but for me,Marooned is a 4/10