This is not a film that can be truly, totally appreciated by those who did not have the benefit of growing up in the time that gives this context. This was a time only a few years removed from the day when a Russian submarine commander near Cuba refused a direct order that would have started WWIII. It was the era of Viet Nam and riots, of a musical revolution never seen before or since, and a cultural revolution that reverberates to this day.
Those of us who grew up with Mercury through Apollo memorized every technical detail of the program, plus mission objectives, names, backgrounds and everything else. On the way home from Scout camp with the bus radio on we listened to the live broadcast as Apollo 11 landed and when it did, not only did we cheer but every single car on the road and every pedestrian. It was beyond being merely heady. It was a moment in history that will live as long as recorded history exists.
Cernan's documentary was not (as some reviewers suggest) an ego trip. As described by one great writer, the story is not about the "I" but about the "eye" - seeing things through Cernan's perspective.
Younger generations have never experienced genuine awe. And they have not experienced this awe in the context of the cold war and being drafted right out of high school and being dropped into a rice paddy. When you live in such a situation and then you have something else going on that makes everything - including war - seem infantile, then you have a perspective that shows the Mercury through Apollo days to be among the most important times in all of history.
If some find this film boring, it is because they haven't the context to understand genuine awe. Recent generations are very self-focused. The generation of the early space program was focused outward. It is that focus that reveals that which is truly important, which is the entire human species and not just one's circle of friends.
I appreciate what Gene Cernan has done here and I'm glad he got to it before his time ran out. Films about Apollo 11 have been done to death. I'm glad that Cernan made a film that focused on the human experience and I am glad that it was his experience that provided the lens through which we could view it.