In the Shadow of the Moon

[Redlum]

http://www.intheshadowofthemoon.com/
"Remember when the whole world looked up"

In the Shadow of the Moon follows the manned missions to the moon made by the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The documentary reviews both the footage and media available to the public at the time of the missions, as well as NASA films and materials which had not been opened in over 30 years; all of which has been remastered in HD. Augmenting the archival audio and video are contemporary interviews with some surviving Apollo era astronauts, including Al Bean, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke, and Harrison Schmitt. The former astronauts have the only speaking roles in the movie, although occasional supplementary information is presented on screen with text and archival television footage presents the words of journalists such as Jules Bergman and Walter Cronkite. The notoriously reclusive Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, declined to participate.

I saw this today and enjoyed it immensely. I find the subject matter moving, just by thinking about it with any degree of seriousness, and to hear the story from the astronauts own mouths makes a strong impression. One simple choice that made this into an excellent documentary was to have the astronauts talk right into the camera; to the audience. This made the film a real journey through the story of Apollo.

Most powerful was their spiritual reflections upon their achievements - each seemed to interpret what they'd experienced slightly differently but the over-riding image they shared was of the fragility of earth when viewed from the moon. The discussions of this perspective alone, somehow made a more compelling case for taking care of the planet than An Inconvenient Truth.

Michael Collins, the command module pilot who orbited the moon while Aldrin and Armstrong walked the moon was the best at relaying his experience with a sense of humour and fortune as well as capturing the great significance of it all. Armstrong's absence was felt but in fact his choice not to participate helped the documentary overall. I wonder whether his reasoning was mainly to do with the importance of preserving the enigma of his identity.

An underlying aspect of the film is the worlds perception of America - see the tagline: Remember when the whole world looked up. Particularly interesting as one of the astronauts mentions his guilt of not fighting in Vietnam with his friends in the air force. For good or bad.

I Highly recommend if you see it showing anywhere.

[Pubrick]

One simple choice that made this into an excellent documentary was to have the astronauts talk right into the camera; to the audience.

wants to be morris. it's a good thing.

I wonder whether his reasoning was mainly to do with the importance of preserving the enigma of his identity.

i doubt it. the man was the first person on the moon, i don't think his "enigma" is something that would change with more interviews, or something that would concern him. maybe you meant "integrity".

I Highly recommend if you see it showing anywhere.

will do. i too find this subject matter inherently moving. i saw a doco the other day on the history channel about yuri gagarin and just with straightforward facts and modest reenactments it made ME proud to be russian.

[Redlum]

I wonder whether his reasoning was mainly to do with the importance of preserving the enigma of his identity.

i doubt it. the man was the first person on the moon, i don't think his "enigma" is something that would change with more interviews, or something that would concern him. maybe you meant "integrity".

Possibly. The impression you get from the rest of the astronauts, and by pure fact that he was chosen to be the first, is that he had more of "the right stuff" than any of them. A lot of the astronauts refer to the 'right stuff', almost as a way of laughing at their younger, arrogant/fearless selves. Obviously, Neil Armstrong is just a man, the same as any of them but he is the only one that an embarrassing percentage of the world knows the name of. In some ways seeing this man, that age has taken its toll on just like anyone defies the legend. I say legend because the astronauts themselves still can't believe it when they look up at the moon, today (not to mention the conspiracies). I don't know what good his absence does, to be honest I think it would be the subject of a documentary of its own.