Wettlauf zum Mond

I've just visited Russian forum of our TV-channel that had showed this film. Well... 99 per cent of active Russian audience is disappointed. We wanted to see more true facts of our space achievements in this film. But authors had in mind something else... :( We are big and beautiful country with intelligent people living here. We are proud of all our space dreams, real achievements on the one hand in this field and in science on the other hand. So I'd like to ask authors: Where is our LUNOHOD? And where, the Hell our MIR station? Ah? I'm quite sure, that LUNOHOD events took place much earlier Armstrong's "walk on Moon". And to comment numerous technical and science mistakes - I really have no time and enough space here! Se our constructive critics in Russian forum on www.1tv.ru

This mini-series was so riveting, I had to watch it several times in it's entirety to catch everything. I certainly wish that there were more docudramas like this. The portrayal of Sergei Korolev was, for lack of a better word, amazing. All production values, in my opinion, went above and beyond anything that I have seen on television in years. Yet, it is such a shame that the series ended with the Apollo 11 moon landing. Though, it would be interesting to see the development of the Space Shuttle, MIR, The Voyager Missions, Viking, Spacelab, and the I.S.S. as well as other Soviet and current Russian spacecraft documented in a continuation of this series. I found Space Race to be inspiring as well as aspiring for future generations to know that we can do anything, if we dare to dream.

A breathtaking view of an incredible period of world history never to be repeated. Cold war politics, ambitious personalities, and ingenious technological developments, all vie for centre stage, the winner for me being the sheer boldness and courage of engineers and astronauts of that amazing era. The tension is maintained throughout and it is a roller-coaster ride of success and failure, triumph and tragedy, joy and despair, the key players represented "warts and all" as real personalities . I found it a completely absorbing TV experience, real footage skillfully intertwined with reenactment. The views of the rocket launches - real or CGI - left me awestruck; I am sorry there were only 4 episodes, but it means not a moment is wasted.

Reasonably well-marshaled depiction of the space race. Live action nicely integrated with CGI and historical footage. Principal roles are handled well enough. But I understand there are a number of inaccuracies, and certain events are compressed or telescoped. That's kind of the problem with dramatisations. The story will often be tweaked for 'dramatic purposes', and this will add little to (or even detract from) one's understanding of what actually went on. I realise documentaries don't present the unalloyed truth, but I think I'd prefer to watch a documentary on this subject, with film of the actual events and interviews with those who were there. Aside from that, this is good enough in a potboiler-with-a-budget sort of way. One strange thing - the Russian scenes begin with the cast speaking subtitled Russian, then switch to English. It's a bit distracting, and I wonder what possessed whoever made the decision. Something else that stood out - the Russians are depicted with a lot more warmth than the Americans, who, with Von Braun, seem a square-jawed, flinty-eyed lot.

Shocking!

In 1965 I saw Jury Gagarin alive. He was sincere, unpretentious and kindly, he was at ease and looked like well-educated and intellectual person. In this movie I saw a clown! The actor looks like dummy with affected gestures and mimicry. They made a cartoon! The real Gagarin was someone else! Don't believe in this movie!

I saw this movie after the movies like "Taming of Fire" and "Apollo 13" and after reading books "Rockets and People" by Chertok and "Korolev: Myths and Facts" by Golovanov. I was shocked by tiresome scenario, poor acting and producing, and a lots of inexactitudes of "Space Race".

The movie is the tedious rendering of well-known in Russia historical facts. A lots of interesting known facts of the space projects was not demonstrated. Some facts and details were perverted. For example, in 1945 Korolev was already not a prisoner (liberated in 1944), and in 1940 he was already not in Kolyma prison gold mine, but in special prison design bureau. Korolev was the designer in prison design bureau and he was not buried the dead prisoners. But in the movie Korolev worked as grave digger after 1940 (because jailer have shoulder straps on uniform). IMHO, the authors of movie have no profound knowledge about this part of the history and they can't to make interesting movies.