Of Stars and Men

Carl Sagan would have been proud of this movie. Its animated format leads from the physics and biology of life, to the possibility of life elsewhere. It is based upon the book of the same title by Harlow Shapley, a famous American astronomer. It is too bad that it was never released to video, because it is still relevant today.

I first viewed Of Stars and Men at the University of Denver Observatory in 1968 and have viewed it scores of times since then. I am amazed in reading discoveries of new planets in 2012 and what they mean to cosmology that almost all of these developments were predicted in Of Stars and Men. It has truly been one of the best movies in my life. The story line by Prof. Shapley remains amazing 50 years later, and is actually ahead of most astronomy and philosophy of science documentaries of today. The Hubley art and animation remains, to me, astoundingly beautiful. The musical sound track also one of the best. There is more physics, astronomy, cosmology, and reflection on life in this 55 minute film than one could hope for.

Of Men and Stars is simple, clear and concisely narrated animation of our physical universe as viewed from the mid 20th century. Ahead of its time without adding dogma, fluff or spin. The animations were simple but worked well without trying to outplay the narration as it is with cgi productions of our time. The animation sort of reminded me of a of a child's drawing with a little Pollack or Picasso mixed in. The narration is folksy but clearly spoken similar to what i have heard on old Post or Kellog's cereal commercials. As it is over 50 years old there were some " facts " that have changed or updated yet it was right on course as our voyaging probes to their fact finding missions. Carl Sagan's " Cosmos " would be a great companion to this work. A great primer for the young and old on how science views our universe and is still relevant these many years later.