9/17/07

In the Shadow of the Moon

What a delightful documentary! The audience applauded as "In The Shadow of the Moon" concluded. It is masterfully researched and edited, with warm and humorous interviews that feature at least eight of the astronauts who made moon shots relating their experiences in their own words. Of course, Lovell, who was captain of Apollo 13, expresses a twinge of regret about his aborted attempt, but his crew's safe return was as miraculous as the other landings! We can thank Tom Hanks and his wonderful movie for our grasp of THAT one. By the way, Ron Howard is a producer/distributor for this new film, as well.

The interviews include lots of historic footage of world events, political figures, civil rights marches, riots, Vietnam protests, astronaut training films, Russian documentaries, and then return, over and over again to the astronauts' own personal insights and memories. For example: During that first successful blastoff, Michael Collins said his pulse rate was 140. Neil Armstrong's was 70. The man was an iceberg...calm, cool and resourceful, the perfect man to lead that first team. He has remained reserved and reclusive. He is NOT one of the participants in this current film. But of course that only adds to his mystique...

Not only is this a terrific film, well worth your time to watch, do yourself a favor and rent "The Dish" to go with it! This delightful Australian film shows how a dinky, little-known spot in the Outback was saddled with the responsibility to receive that historic signal from the moon and transmit "One small step for man..." to the world. It shows the trouble those dedicated and creative blokes were having with undependable power, bad weather, and numerous other glitches that almost prevented the world from hearing those memorable words.