In the Shadow of the Moon

There have been many documentaries about the technical issues of getting to the Moon, but this one focuses more on how the astronauts felt about it all. At turns funny (Buzz Aldrin admits he relieved himself right before stepping on the Moon because it was about the only spare time he was going to have for the next two hours), inspiring (Jim Lovell talking about reading from Genesis while orbiting the Moon), and poignant (several of the astronauts talk about the Apollo 1 fire), it's a riveting piece of film-making.

The footage itself switches between the "talking heads" of the astronauts and imagery depicting what they're talking about, loosely following the chronology of the space age, from Kennedy's declaration of the ambition to go to the Moon to the later Apollo missions with the lunar rover. There aren't any revelations in the mission footage, but then all that's been combed over many times. However, it's well put together and everything is tied in.

I got to see this film at a special showing at the Goddard Space Flight Center. When the film was over, the auditorium full of space geeks gave the director a standing ovation. I think it was well-deserved. While he humbly noted "It's you rocket scientists who really did this - I just put a film together," perhaps - as he also noted - this film will help inspire another generation as we take the next great leap into space, this time to Mars.

From 1969 to 1972, America put 12 men on the moon in nine missions. Eight of the surviving crew members (notably absent is the reclusive Neil Armstrong) talk about their adventures in the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon with less of the engineering and more of the philosophy, a bit different from the dramatic renditions of The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, and HBO'S From Earth to the Moon.

The excellence of this version is the articulate, close up, talking heads of the astronauts, who are more handsome in their late 70's than they were in their late 20's, a testimony to space athletes who keep themselves fit forever. Besides their reflective narrations (for instance, Mike Collins is full of insights and glamorous details, Jim Lovell could do color commentary for any network), the photography, some of it never seen from NASA archives, is memorable. The earth as blue bubble is beautiful.

The documentary strays somewhat from the reality base by peppering the denouement with sappy, semi-religious contemplations from the narrators about "God's work" and the "fragility" motif. But all in all, this Ron Howard production is a first-rate retrospective about an era for which Americans should be proud—the contrast between the visionary Kennedy and the current blind Bush is painful. Maybe we should send him to the moon?

Powerfully put together NASA documentary highlights Apollo 11's historic run amongst other aged adventurers often stirring recollections.

Undoubtedly this is some of the finest public extraterrestrial footage ever married into film, and for that alone this noble salute to a bygone America and the heroes that inhabited it is a must see. Taking a trip to the moon with these brave astronauts has never been captured as intimately, helping viewers begin to feel what it must be like to be looking down from space like never before.

Combined with excellent musical scoring, David Sington's emotional remembrance and vicarious lift-offs belongs in many, many star watcher's collections.

Bravo to everyone involved in this great film. I just caught it at the 16th Philadelphia Film Festival. Director David Sington answered questions eloquently and patiently as I sat stunned after the film. Having read every Apollo astronaut biography I know to exist I didn't think I'd learn much in the way of facts from the movie, but it turns out there were a couple of things. It is great to see these men who gave so much to my generation talking about the experience decades later. They are wiser and gentler people than when they flew the spacecraft. Sington stated that he wanted to show the events from the point of view of the astronauts. He succeeds, and the experience is moving and meaningful to everyone who looked out from this world in a state of wonder. The Apollo program remains something similar to Leonardo's sketch of a helicopter--an idea ahead of its time technologically, politically and economically, here at the very start of humanity's adventure in the Universe, only a few thousand years after we started using agriculture and so on. When future generations wonder what was going on during the Apollo decade I think this movie is one of the things they'll be looking at.

And I mean it. The footage and stories in this movie were like nothing I've ever seen. Nor have many others because this film includes new footage and stories of the Apollo space missions never seen nor heard. I went to an advance screening at the Sarasota Film Festival and I was extremely impressed as was the rest of the crowd. There was a very long standing ovation at the end of the movie. The film includes at least one member from each of the Apollo missions telling there stories of the process they went through while preparing to land on the moon. It contains the remarkable footage filmed by the crew members of each mission. If you truly want to be left see a movie that will leave you full of excitement and amaze you must see this movie. The host of the film said this film was the reason movies should be made and he was nothing short of the truth.