Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview... a disciplined astronaut on Project Mercury. As a decorated Marine and test pilot, Glenn was a natural choice for NASA’s first attempt at manned space flight. He’s a born leader who takes his responsibilities very, very seriously. But as America’s newfound media darling, Glenn has to figure out how to keep his private life – and his shy wife – away from public scrutiny.
Personality... disciplined, formal, buttoned-up, earnest, and moral. While all of the Project Mercury astronauts are asked to portray a squeaky-clean image for the public, Glenn doesn’t need to act. He’s the epitome of a wholesome American hero. That makes him an ideal face for the mission, but doesn’t immediately ingratiate him with his slightly less self-righteous colleagues.
Get to Know him in...
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Tom Wolfe's book on the history of the U.S. Space program reads like a novel, and the film has that same fictional quality. It covers the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager to the Mercury 7 astronauts, showing that no one had a clue how to run a space program or how to select people to be in it. Thrilling, funny, charming and electrifying all at once.
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From "America's nerviest journalist" (Newsweek)--a breath-taking epic, a magnificent adventure story, and an investigation into the true heroism and courage of the first Americans to conquer space. "Tom Wolfe at his very best" (The New York Times Book Review) Millions of words have poured forth about man's trip to the moon, but until now few people have had a sense of the most engrossing side of the adventure; namely, what went on in the minds of the astronauts themselves - in space, on the moon, and even during certain odysseys on earth. It is this, the inner life of the astronauts, that Tom Wolfe describes with his almost uncanny empathetic powers, that made The Right Stuff a classic.
