Apollo 11

The footage is astonishing.  Some of it you've seen before.  Most you probably haven't.  This year's APOLLO 11 recounts the titular NASA mission that landed three astronauts on the Moon, fifty years ago this week.  A fulfillment of President John F. Kennedy's promise to have Americans there before the close of the decade.  It must have been a proud moment for the country.  I was only three months old at the time, but I was told I was there, watching the TV simultaneously with millions of others. Those clips of Neil Armstrong in the suit.  Planting the American flag.  The concerned guys back in Houston at mission control.  You've seen them.

But there was plenty of 70 mm film (in the National Archives and Records) that had never been released to the public. Looks absolutely amazing.  Scenes of launch sites at the JFK Center in Florida.  Launch pads being readied.  I'm mesmerized by such things.  There are several shots of spectators at the site, on the beach, and even standing outside their apartments waiting for history to unfold. We also get to see the astronauts' recovery at sea, and their subsequent eighteen day quarantine, lest they brought back any harmful organisms.

There was over eleven thousand hours of audio clips from which to work.  Director Todd Douglas Miller utilizes them perfectly under graphics of the module's trajectory in and out of the Earth's atmosphere.  Velocities and travel distances are documented onscreen (in very small font).  Even as we know the outcome, it's all terribly exciting.  More gripping than many thrillers.  The clips (some also in 16 and 30 mm, as well as video) were enhanced with high resolution digital scans.

The real distinguishing point is Miller's approach - there are no talking heads, no narrators, no discernible bias.  I wish more documentaries were like this. While commentaries can be fascinating and educational, the subject often can speak for itself.   There is a briefly overheard news report of Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick tragedy, but I didn't detect any particular agenda for its inclusion.  APOLLO 11, from CNN Films, is a clear eyed, patient step by step document that needed no embellishment or trickery.  If you want an examination of Space Program expenditure, and those who protested it, feeling the money would be better spent to feed the hungry, etc.(or if the mission was faked, Lord help us all), you'll have to look elsewhere.

I really wanted to see this in IMAX.  Maybe I'll get another opportunity.