Viewed in
2008
Premise
A documentary about the Apollo missions to the Moon.
Who should watch
Those interested in space history.
Thoughts
While I am sure there were other documentaries about America's foray onto the Moon, this was very comprehensive and educational. It succeeded because of the vast footage collection and numerous interviews.
I loved the interviews of the astronauts involved in the Apollo missions. Just hearing them vividly recalling their adventures was like listening a great epic from the mouth of a master story teller.
In addition to the usual big names of Armstrong and Aldrin, astronauts from the other missions shared their moments glory. My favorite was Mike Collins, the third man on the famous Apollo 11 mission. Even though he did not get to land on the Moon, he still felt grateful for being part of history.
To accompany their stories, the film makers showed tons of wonderful footage. As with the interviews, there were famous images and amazing stuff that I never saw before.
I did have one question. There was footage of a capsule ejected from the rocked in space, from the ejected capsule. How was that possible? I don't think it was transmitted, because it was in color, so it had to be film. How did they retrieve that footage from that capsule?
Thanks to the great resources of the archives and the first hand accounts, the film makers were able to carve a comprehensive and insightful story about the program. There was a lot of history and emotional recollections. Personally, I like to hear a lot about the 'how' aspect of any documentary. Thankfully, this film explained many things that regular folks like me know about and tons of things we never did know about. It was that new information that was very exciting to hear about.
What I would change
Reduced the flashy close ups.
