Five stars. Rated G, and suitable for all ages
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 5.15.20
The images haven’t lost their power, and I’m sure they never will.
We’ve had no shortage of NASA-themed re-creations and documentaries since 1995’s Apollo 13; that drama definitely jump-started its own genre, starting with 1998’s equally compelling 12-part miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon.
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| Although gathering "Moon rocks" was an essential part of the mission, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin also placed several ongoing experiments on the lunar surface. |
All manner of IMAX entries followed, from 2002’s Space Station 3D and 2010’s Hubble, to 2016’s A Beautiful Planet.
But nothing compares to the real thing.
Documentarian Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11 is a mesmerizing depiction of the off-world mission that fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s May 1961 message to Congress, when he concluded, “Then we must be bold!” (Ah, for the days when our presidents were so inspirational and unifying.)
Thanks to a newly discovered trove of previously unprocessed 65mm footage, along with more than 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings — and supplemented with some familiar images that we’ve seen, over the years — Miller and his team meticulously condensed the eight-day mission into a thoroughly absorbing 93-minute experience.
Indeed, at times the presentation borders on candid intimacy, given some of the light-hearted exchanges between the three astronauts and Mission Control.
Miller, who also edited his film, makes excellent use of split-screen, to depict simultaneous events (and, at times, add a bit of drama).
We’re also reminded of the era’s limitations; the notion that we accomplished this with early-gen computers makes the success even more astonishing. Heck, this is a time when engineers still used slide rules to verify — and compute (!) — performance specs.
The film opens with a jaw-dropping visual — at slightly more than three hours before takeoff — as the two ginormous “crawlers” slowly transport the Saturn V rocket to the launch site. (As well-versed as I am on the Apollo program, I don’t recall ever having seen this process so up-close-and-personal. Like, wow.)
