First to the Moon

This was a very good documentary that captured the passion, the drama, the struggle to get to the moon before the Russians. One of my favorite aspects of the documentary is that they portray the astronauts the way they really were: beyond badass. In fact at one point Bill Anders explains how he had displeased Chuck Yeager who threatened to kick him out of the astronaut program. So he called up Deke Slaton in admission control about it who told him not to worry about it, he was definitely going to be an astronaut. Why? Because the astronauts didn't really like Chucky Yeager! Yes, the Chuck Yeager that broke the sound barrier. That's how amazing these guys were (and are). They were test pilots, they were engineers, and they were going to space. They were the very best that America had to offer.

I took off one star because the best part of this, the reading of Genesis while orbiting the moon, was done much more powerfully in the documentary, "Moonshot". If you have not seen it, I very strongly recommend it.

I'm fond of 'Space Race' documentaries and "For all Mankind' was a sort of benchmark in that field. This one ranks alongside that one in terms of quality and emotion (I'm a boomer). Interviews with the astronauts Lovell, Borman and Anders tell how the grew up, what motivated them and how they got into the astronaut group. All that is punctuated with personal photos, archival footage and in some cases reenactments of incidents. All good stuff and excellently done.

When they get to the events at Nasa leading up to the Apollo mission (Gemini in particular) it starts to get mesmerizing If you don't know about that period you will be seriously enlightened. The punctuated astronaut interviews amidst the storytelling brings it all down to a human level. Thank you Lovell, Borman and Anders for getting involved in this.

Superior graphics animation to show what archival footage could not, superior restoration of both Nasa and news footage and superior editing make this a must watch for Space fans. Another call out to the composer for making the music enhance the story and not bombastic and overbearing as is usual these days The Director of course deserves kudos for making this picture and thank you to Kickstarter doners for letting this become a reality.

"Thank You Apollo 8 for saving 1968"