A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon

My boyfriend's room mate brought this movie home from his uncle's house and suggested we all watch it with him. At first, I didn't know what to expect, I mean how could the government POSSIBLY have staged a mission to the moon and a lunar landing! Think of all the people who would be involved and having to have them sworn to secrecy about the whole thing or else they may be eliminated? Sounds crazy, right? Well this movie is really fun to watch - it makes you re-think one of the greatest moments in American history. It gives your brain a workout and sparks some interesting debates as to whether or not Apollo 11 actually landed on the moon, let alone with people inside it who were able to walk out of the craft. It raises such topics as shadows on the videos, interesting never publicized video footage, interviews (or lack thereof), lighting on the space craft, photographs (or lack thereof), video *oops*'s, Russia, the cold war, China, future missions to the moon, staged conversations between the astronauts and mission control, the strength and construction of the space craft itself, and things of that nature. Definitely worth a viewing. Keep in mind it's a pretty cheaply made documentary so you can't expect much along the lines of video quality.

The only reason I didn't score this a one is that Sibrel does show that he is adept at the technical aspects of making a film. It is a technically adept film.

That having been said, this is a film based on lies and distortions that are quite easily disproven. Most of the documentary is spent using propaganda techniques to bash the space program, rather than actual fact. And Sibrel's "irrefutable proof" that the landings were faked is easily refuted if you know anything about orbital mechanics.

I do not recommend watching this, but if you do, see it at google video for free. Don't let Bart Sibrel profit from your curiosity.

This film is utter trash not worth viewing under any circumstances. None of it is accurate nor contains a shred of anything even close to the truth. The person behind this garbage is a small little person that needs to tear others down to feel good about himself. Basically screaming "Look how great I am I uncovered the biggest hoax" its not worth viewing at all, utter contrived trash not worthy of being left for the collection bin. I wont even give it one star its not worth even that much. Better to watch a video of grass growing it would make more sense and be far more entertaining to the viewer.

Writer/Director Bart Sibrel bases his work here around a can of film that he says was mistakenly sent to him by NASA. He says it shows the astronauts faking the television footage of their trip to the moon by employing camera tricks. The astronauts were in low Earth orbit all the time, and editors on the ground composed this raw footage into just a few seconds of finished film.

Unfortunately Sibrel's research is so slipshod that he doesn't realize his "backstage" footage is really taken in large part from the 30-minute live telecast (also on that reel) that was seen by millions, not hidden away in NASA vaults as he implies. And we have to wonder why Sibrel puts his own conspiratorial narration over the astronauts' audio in the footage, because hearing the astronauts in their own words clearly spells out that the astronauts were just testing the camera, not faking footage.

Finally, anyone can see the raw footage for themselves without having to buy Sibrel's hacked-up version of it. (He shows you more of the Zapruder film of JFK's assassination than of his "smoking gun".) Sibrel thinks he's the only one who's seen it. What's more revealing is the clips from that raw footage that Sibrel chose NOT to use, such as those clearly showing the appropriately distant Earth being eclipsed by the window frames and so forth, destroying his claim that mattes and transparencies were placed in the spacecraft windows to create the illusion of a faraway Earth.

As with most films of this type, Sibrel relies on innuendo, inexpert assumption, misleading commentary, and selective quotation to manipulate the viewer into accepting a conclusion for which there is not a shred of actual evidence.

There are so many incorrect statements in this so-called "documentary" that I found myself shouting at the television.

Bart Sibrel might be able to produce a flashy looking DVD, but he is sadly lacking at looking at the science behind his claims.

He relies on either being inaccurate, not telling the full story, or the old favourite "government always lies to us" innuendos, and people believing what is told to them and not checking on the accuracy or details behind the claims.

What's more, his "exclusive" or "unreleased" footage is freely available over the internet from various sites.

Further reading about the circumstances regarding the filming of this production shows that he used false pretenses to gain interviews, and has used creative editing of the responses in order to promote his own opinions.

All of the claims made by Mr Sibrel about "inaccuracies", "mistakes", or "whistleblowing" in the Apollo programme have been thoroughly disproven.

How do I get that 40-odd minutes of my life back?