With the space program there is always a facade there, much less with the US one, but still. The real heroism and real struggle are always invisible to the public, but that is where the Right Stuff is, not on your TV screen.
Anyway, I checked, and Chertok's memoirs are available in English translation, so I highly recommend them. Tons of technical details for the tech junkies like myself.
Staying with the movies, the soviets had their own version of The Right Stuff - it was called (in my translation) Taming the Fire. Kinda as superficial and silly as TRS, much along the same lines.
