Chasing the Moon

From the ultra-cool opening sequence, (the graphics, the historic images from the 50's and 60's, to the dramatic music) you knew well that American Experience was about to present us with a dazzling, fact filled and humane adventure. And a Thouroughly American adventure at that.

Looking back 50 years ago to all involved on every level. These brave, brainy, brilliant Americans were our contemporaries!

Just think about that for a moment. They are US! The best "us" we could ever hope to be.

It's all in "Chasing the Moon" - simply the finest documentary of it's kind.

Since its first episode aired on October 4, 1988, PBS's "American Experience" has done a great deal to advance the cause of looking at our nation's history with a fresh perspective free from ideology and distortions. And in 2019, the series took a look at what is arguably the greatest technological achievement not only in American history, but really in the whole history of the human race: the race to the Moon, which the United States won on July 20, 1969.

First shown on PBS in the week before America celebrated the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, CHASING THE MOON is a three-part look at how America in general, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in particular, marshaled the full measure of our technological and industrial might to achieve what, before World War II, was considered pure science fiction, the stuff of Jules Verne and Fritz Lang. Avoiding the use of "talking heads", but relying on the narratives of those involved in the building of the spacecrafts and launch vehicles, and those involved in taking them towards the Moon, writer-director Robert Stone does an extremely good job of taking us through the circumstances of the "Space Race". Part One takes us from the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, which scared the world in general, and America in particular, senseless, through President Kennedy's initially reluctant but later enthusiastic advocacy of manned space flight, to his assassination on November 22, 1963. Part Two carries us through the Gemini program and the beginnings of Apollo, to that horrible day of January 27, 1967, when Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were asphyxiated in a flash fire on the launch pad in a pre-test of Apollo 1. And finally, Part Three takes from how Apollo was resurrected from that tragedy, to the trans-lunar flight of Apollo 8 in December 1968, and finally to the triumph on the Sea of Tranquility on the night of July 20, 1969.

But while it celebrates the triumphs and mourns the two tragedies (JFK's assassination; the Apollo 1 fire) that marked this whole section of our history, CHASING THE MOON doesn't ignore the fact that this was happening at a time of immense political, social, and structural upheaval, with the Civil Rights movement, and, unsurprisingly, the Vietnam War. There was considerable dissension among people of the worthiness of spending tens of billions of dollars on space during that time. But tens of billions more dollars were being spend on a foreign fiasco that resulted in 58,000 American soldiers and four million Vietnamese civilians paying the ultimate price, and America being severely divided from that point forward, while the achievement of Apollo 11, and the history of the American space pogrom as a whole, resulted in us learning just how small we are in the context of an immense universe. If anything, Apollo 11 humbled not only Americans and Russians alike, but also the entire world, into understanding what it means to be living on this planet.

At a time when the Damien Chazelle-directed 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic FIRST MAN and the brilliant Todd Douglas Miller documentary APOLLO 11 fueled renewed interest in what was seemingly one of the most overanalyzed events in the history of the world, CHASING THE MOON added to that, and did so in a way that PBS does best. That moment at 10:56 PM Eastern Time on the night of July 20, 1969, when Armstrong took that one small step for Man and one giant leap for Mankind, is an event to be cherished; and CHASING THE MOON furthers the notion that it is also an event that can never be forgotten.

First, I am very hard to please when it comes to space docs. I was there, I lived it intensely as a young boy. I have a great emotional involvement in the lunar program. So my statements are coming from that overall perspective. Most space docs feature awful music and bloated scripts coupled to grainy and unprofessional film edits. Rest assured, this one is NOT in that category. It is very well made, the music, while not of the same quality as Philip Sheppard's ("In the Shadow of the Moon", "Moon Machines"), still is good enough to be appropriate and to not damage the hearing. And some of it is quite touching - the song "Wait" by M83 features prominently at the beginning and end of the film, to very strong and heartfelt effect.

And it's that effect that bothers me - the overall tone of this film is one of loss, of sadness, of disillusionment. Those things are hard enough to live with in the real world. All of us who were emotionally involved with the space effort and dreamed of having our chance to be a part of a team that would carry us to other worlds, know these feelings as personal realities. To have them touched on so directly was - uncomfortable. I was almost in tears at the end.

As far as the filmmaker's technique - he makes a terrible mistake by not clearly identifying the speakers in all cases. There are only a dozen or so of them, and yet them seem like a battalion, because it becomes impossible to keep track of who has been introduced and who is new. Some of their voices I was very familiar with - but some of these people are completely new to me. What do they look like? Why not put a face and a name tag with the speaker? It seems affected and it is distracting.

The film footage is a real mixture. Some of it is brand new to me. The spectacular footage of the Vanguard disaster is expertly synced to the actual sounds recorded by the reporters present. This is a wonderful idea and gives a wonderful "you are there" quality to the film. But many of the clips are the same tired ones that have been recycled in a dozen space docs. As the film goes on, the new material is harder and harder to come by.

And that brings me to the main problem with the film - after a very, very strong start, by the third hour it begins flags and gets lost in its own discursive sentimentality. The final third borders on chaos, and a person unfamiliar with events would not be able to form a coherent picture of them from this source.

On the plus side - the stories of Poppy Northcutt and Ed Dwight were fascinating. My already low opinion of Chuck Yeager dropped another three notches after hearing Dwight tell his heartbreaking story. At the same time, my respect for Ed White, tragically killed in the Apollo 1 fire, went up by the same amount.

So is this worth seeing? Absolutely. As I said, it's way better than the usual NASA documentary potboilers. But it's not in the same class as David Sington's films, mentioned above. Those films offered something this film does not - hope and solace in an unjust world.

Edit added after 3 viewings - now I get it. It is a great film.

Another edit - sorry bear with me.

I cannot stop watching this film - because it gets better with each viewing. This is an extremely well thought-out film.

I am getting used to the feeling of loss that carries it, but also to the message of hope it contains.

A wonderful and at times deeply moving documentary that captures so much of the detail and feeling of what it was like to live through those exciting "moon" years.

The amount of footage from the period is also quite remarkable, and this is used very skillfully to tell a complex and engrossing story.

For those of us old enough to remember (I was just a boy at the time) it also brings back a lot of amazing memories. For those who did not experience those times, it should perhaps be even more enlightening and entertaining.

Well worth sitting through all 6 hours!

"Chasing the Moon" comprehensively covers the history of spaceflight from the closing days of WWII through the Apollo program in a way you've never seen before. It brilliantly blends five narratives. The recollections of the astronauts themselves, insights from NASA administrators and engineers, extensive broadcast TV clips and rare NASA footage, an appreciation of the Russian space program, and the politics that empowered these human and technological achievements. Viewers are transported through the era in a way that allows you to feel that you are there, watching it all unfold live before your eyes.

The six hour film is presented in three parts, so there is a bit of a commitment involved, but you will see oodles of rare newsreel footage that even a space junkie like me has never seen before in a documentary of this type (and I've seen 'em all). Despite its length, "Chasing the Moon" is riveting. Broadcast over PBS on three consecutive nights earlier this month, the film is currently available for viewing on the PBS website, or through the PBS app. Ten out of ten stars.