The movie is a documentary, a chronicle of about nine NASA missions to the moon from 1968 to 1972, including the near disaster of Apollo 13 ("Houston, we had a problem here."). It is not important that there is not a great focus on any one particular space mission. After all, even if not exactly alike, the trips were similar. But how about those brave men, sitting atop a 300+ foot spaceship longer than the height of the Statue of Liberty . . . waiting for the rocket motors to blast-off . . . a big candle indeed! To make this wonderful movie, director Al Reinert mulled over six million feet of film and taped more than 80 hours of NASA interviews. Editor Susan Korda must have had much work to do.
It all began in 1962 with President Kennedy's famous Texas speech. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." We had a supporting array of brilliant engineers at Houston. Our achievement was monumental.
The film offers no professional narrative, no texts, and no talking heads. None of those are needed. Instead the story is told by Houston and the astronauts themselves. The footage speaks for itself. And it is beautifully set to music by Brian Eno. An astronaut plays Frank Sinatra's 1964 rendition of "Fly Me to the Moon." How apropos! Later we hear "The eagle has landed." What an experience: walking and hopping on the moon, rock hunting, securing the American flag! One of the astronauts tests Galileo's Law of Falling Bodies using a hammer and a feather. The Italian physicist was right! The film is dedicated to the 14 men and women who died. They include four Russians on two Soyuz missions, and the three astronauts who died in that terrible Apollo I fire in January 1967. Also there were the seven who perished in the Challenger in January 1986.
I noticed that the end movie credit of Santo and Johnny Farina's 1959 top instrumental hit reads "Sleepwalking" instead of "Sleep Walk." But the movie version is the cover by Lee DeCarlo (who was also the film's post-production sound supervisor) and also Peter Manning Robinson. Maybe this version was renamed; it certainly does sound like the original Farina tune.
"For All Mankind" is recommended for everybody!
It all began in 1962 with President Kennedy's famous Texas speech. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." We had a supporting array of brilliant engineers at Houston. Our achievement was monumental.
The film offers no professional narrative, no texts, and no talking heads. None of those are needed. Instead the story is told by Houston and the astronauts themselves. The footage speaks for itself. And it is beautifully set to music by Brian Eno. An astronaut plays Frank Sinatra's 1964 rendition of "Fly Me to the Moon." How apropos! Later we hear "The eagle has landed." What an experience: walking and hopping on the moon, rock hunting, securing the American flag! One of the astronauts tests Galileo's Law of Falling Bodies using a hammer and a feather. The Italian physicist was right! The film is dedicated to the 14 men and women who died. They include four Russians on two Soyuz missions, and the three astronauts who died in that terrible Apollo I fire in January 1967. Also there were the seven who perished in the Challenger in January 1986.
I noticed that the end movie credit of Santo and Johnny Farina's 1959 top instrumental hit reads "Sleepwalking" instead of "Sleep Walk." But the movie version is the cover by Lee DeCarlo (who was also the film's post-production sound supervisor) and also Peter Manning Robinson. Maybe this version was renamed; it certainly does sound like the original Farina tune.
"For All Mankind" is recommended for everybody!