Moon Shot

Based on the book of the same name, Moon Shot gives a real-life account of NASA's race for the moon by two men who were intimately involved: Deke Slayton and Alan Sheppard.

Much of this film is a gathering of the 5 remaining Mercury Astronauts - Al Sheppard, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordo Cooper. They reminisce about the old days and their different perspectives, something you don't get in the book, which is also excellent. Barry Corbin fills in as the voice, but not the image, of Deke Slayton. I think Corbin's part was a nice touch, narrating Deke's contributions to the book. I think it was interesting too that they got Corbin to play a former astronaut when he played former astronaut Maurice Minnifield on Northern Exposure for several years. Maybe intentional, maybe not, but a fine piece of casting. :)

If you liked the film, read the book. You won't be disappointed.

It's ironic that the film Star Wars premiered only a very few years after the last Apollo flight. Of course, Star Wars became one of the greatest commercial successes in film history. The Apollo program died, because people weren't interested anymore. Perhaps many of us like to fantasize about space more than really doing something about going there. However, there was a time when that wasn't so. Moon Shot is an absolutely superb documentary about how the space program went from a short flight of fifteen minutes to man walking on the moon in less than a decade. Through interviews with some of the astronauts from that period, it also shows that people who ventured into space were just that-real people. They were not named Darth or Luke, nor were they the offspring of intergalactic royalty. The didn't wear capes or spandex costumes or use the Force. Rather, they were named Al or Gus or John or Neil. They came from working class backgrounds in many cases (John Glenn's father was a plumber). They had families, mortgages, and car payments. They worked hard, and sometimes made mistakes. They also did great things. By telling what happened, and having some of them tell what happened, Moon Shot is a wonderful chronicle of their accomplishments.

I was fortunate enough to see this on its original TBS broadcast in 1994 and have just finished re-watching it for the first time in several years in honor of the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Having not seen it in so long and having been highly impressed with then, I was intrigued to see this again and wondered if my wonderful memories of it were still true. As it turns out, the memory didn't cheat on this occasion. Moon Shot was a fantastic and personal look at the Space Race from its beginning in 1957 to effective epilogue in 1975.

This documentary series is based upon the book written by astronauts Deke Slayton and Alan Shephard (both of whom are now deceased). The series is told from the point of view of Slayton in the form of narration from actor Barry Corbin. Corbin proves to be a perfect choice for the voice of Slayton (who died during the making of the series in 1993). As Slyaton, Corbin brings a wide range of emotions to his narration rather then a possibly monotone form of narration and by the end of it one could be convinced he is Slayton. Corbin though is the tip of the iceberg.

The series is also full of interviews as well. These range from other astronauts (including the book's co-author Alan Shephard) plus various individuals such as those who worked for NASA or reporters who covered NASA in this period. The interviewees each bring their own personal perspectives and allow for a much fuller version of events to be shared. The interviews also present a rather interesting historical document in themselves as many of the astronauts interviewed including Shephard, Wally Schirra and Stu Roosa to name a few have since passed away (Roosa passing away just months after the original broadcast). The interviews represent both a fuller picture of events and an interesting historical document rolled into one.

The series also makes extensive use of archive material as well. Much credit goes to the filmmakers in successfully bringing nearly twenty years worth of events into a just over three hour package which is entertaining, tense and informative even to someone who has spent their life studying the space program. Whiel there is a considerable amount of mixing and matching of stock footage which can become noticeable at times if you know enough, I suspect that the general viewer will remain oblivious to much of that (as I did until my most recent viewing). All in all though it is program that counts and the fact that this is as fascinating to watch today as it was fifteen years ago should speak to the success of the filmmakers.

Moon Shot isn't just another documentary on the Space Race. It is that familiar story told from the perspective of those on the inside of those events ranging from Deke Slyaton (in the form of Corbin's fine narration), interviews and archival footage in a from that is never boring but entertaining, tense and informative. As a result, Moon Shot (like its literary counterpart) takes a fascinating period of history where man first reached out into the night sky come alive again and, as someone who was born well after the fact, offers an amazing gateway into the past. I highly recommended this series along with the films For All Manking and In The Shadow Of The Moon as the best programs to watch about the Apollo missions.

1994 and 1995 became bumper seasons for American retrospectives about having gone to the moon, both in print and on film. When the story first broke in 1993 that Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell was writing the story of his own dramatic yet uplifting Apollo 13 mission, and it was being made into a Hollywood film; -well, you can bet that his old friend Al Shepard would want to match that.

The good news is that he did.

Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton co-wrote Moon Shot, published also in 1994, and it was turned into a Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) production of 8x1/2-hr installments rolled into one 192min video, Moon Shot (1994). Moon Shot is an astronaut-narrated documentary, the type I always wanted to see. Science journalist Andrew Chaikin's decade-long project to tell the same story, which first resulted in his highly respected book A Man on the Moon, published also in 1994, later becoming the basis for Tom Hanks'

From the Earth to the Moon (1998), has ended up with a wider perspective. Of course, we need that, too. But for shee entertainment value, you cannot go past Moon Shot. It has the added advantage of fitting onto one tape, rather than six. It's a much more emotionally immediate (addictive) and economical way to tell the same story. The acted-out recreations of FETTM usually just make me cry, and I find myself needing to psyche up even to choose which tape to watch. Moon Shot's relative brevity and immediacy are powerful incentives.

We see and hear the original astronauts in footage from the '60s, sometimes in opinionated fashion. These are not re-enactments. The beginning is instantly engaging: Kennedy's speech instigating the programme "gave everyone moon fever. The whole country went to work on the moon shot. We practically had a big sign chiselled there up in the sky that said 'Waste anything but time'".

Moon Shot consist of the private memories of the people involved. Remember John Glenn's "fireflies"? It is in Moon Shot that we finally discover that they were from the Constellation Urion (urine).

We hear interviews with all the major players some 30 years later. Most of them are still alive (Al died 1998, Deke 1994, Gus 1967). The astronauts remaining by 1994 become friends to the viewer as well, because we hear them talking about so many things, and each other, on a first name basis. I now can recognize Alan and Wally and Jim (etc) just by their voice alone: I can turn my back and know who's talking. This video really compels us to honor them, warts and all.

We find out that all the astronauts were incredibly competitive, admittedly to the point even of foolishness. They resented the chimps (shock/ horror). They were basically fighter jocks with egos the size of planets (How many fighter jocks does it take to change a light bulb? Just one- he holds the bulb and the world revolves around him), and Coco Beach became their playground, where they got up to all the same hijinks that felled Kennedy's reputation.

Yet no-one dared contradict them much. Gunther Wendt tried that with Alan Shepard, and got an ashtray thrown at his head for his trouble. So I think it took the distance of time, plus the humility imposed by the majesty of space where they really have gone before and come back from, to mellow the surviving astronauts into something resembling Everyman again.

The 1960s were heady, very, very political times (the Apollo programme was largely funded by the CIA, although I don't think that's revealed in this video). Near the beginning of Moon Shot, we see original interviews of people on the street feeling the ego-bruising effects of Sputnik, and exhorting(!) American leaders to overtake the Russians. People thought the way they were taught to think (ie not as informed as they might have been), and they were frightened. Those were different times. Apollo was always going to be a political football. So perhaps to play against all the propaganda, The Bill Dana Show around 1964 featured a hilarious skit featuring Dana's creation "Jose Jimenez, Astronaut". It is included in the first episode on Moon Shot. The comic (actually Hungarian comic writer William Szathmary) impersonated a frightened astronaut fully suited up but holding his helmet, with Gary Crosby as his straight man. The routine goes as follows: Gary Crosby: (pointing to the astronaut's helmet) Is that the crash helmet? Astronaut: Oh I hope not. Gary Crosby: Ah, after you leave the moon, sir, when you come back to Earth, where will you be landing? Astronaut: I will be landing in Nebatha. Jes, de state of Nebatha. Gary Crosby: Then you're convinced they will get you back to Earth? Astronaut: Jes, just how far into it, that's what I'm not convinced about. Gary Crosby: Well, surely they've provided something to break your fall? Astronaut: Oh jes. De State of Nebatha.

But the two most touching, heartrending stories from the Gemini and Apollo programmes both concern Gus Grissom. I now love Gus. He died on Pad 34. Go Fever, the insane round-the-clock schedule they all kept, ensured that no-one re-examined the decisions made to solve the "5-20 insurmountable problems a day". So the highly pressurized oxygen atmosphere, combined with combustible materials within the capsule were allowed to stay in the design from Gemini. Until a short sparked one exhausting 1967 Friday during the last ground test on Pad 34. And just like that, Gus was gone. But the astronaut's perspective on Moon Shot explains: "If one of us didn't make it, there'd be six of us left. And don't kid yourself. As soon as the funeral was over, we'd be lining up to take the next ride. That was the test business." Gus would have said the same.

Thanks guys, for having gone where other people will someday go again. Into that photographically irreproducible blackness of true space. Live long and prosper. 10/10.

I always wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. Neil Armstrong was my hero, Gus Grissom and Alan Shepard too. This TBS production is a very "viewer friendly" trip down history lane starting from the beginning of the astronaut selection for the Mercury program through the Apollo-Soyuz test flight. As told by Deke Slayton, it's easy to understand, doesn't waste the viewer's time with a lot of heady details, puts all due influence on our Cold War competition with the Russians (the astronauts were all soldiers, and the Apollo program was at first an effort to show we could put soldiers with a payload -- re: weapons systems -- on the moon), and has it told by the astronauts themselves: Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, Buzz Aldrin, Scott Carpenter, ground crew people like Chris Kraft.

Do kids these days even know who these people were? Do they understand that we really did shoot people into space in little tin cans with no bathrooms or kitchenettes? Do they understand that these cold warriors were "men", who had egos and wives and drank and got into trouble and made history? People died, too, both on the Soviet side and our boys, and the special very soberly gives attention to all of that while being genuinely amusing at times, mixing period era authentic NASA test footage with the astronauts reminiscing about how ALL OF THIS WAS REAL.

One thing does kind of work against it and that's the overly "down home" narration by Barry Corbin. Yes, Deke Slayton had a bit of a cornpone accept, but after a while it strikes you as having been laid on a bit too thick, along with the comedic music and pratfalls. It's when the presentation sharpens up and gets down to telling you what it was like to be an astronaut candidate that it all comes together. They were competitive, somewhat egotistical and "cocksure" fighter jocks, and one of the interesting points that the film does a good job in getting across is that in 1966 or whatever, not everybody could be an astronaut. Today sure, but only because of the pioneering work these men undertook.

Highly recommended and suitable for all ages & audiences, anybody will be entertained and just like Cosby used to say if you aren't careful you just may learn a few things too.