In the Shadow of the Moon (2008)
This British documentary rounds up the Apollo astronauts – with the exception of the reclusive Neil Armstrong. For men who have circled the planet and walked on the moon, they are appealingly down to earth. 75-year-olds who look fitter than most 35-year-olds, they speak with wit and self-deprecation about tackling the challenges thrown them by Kennedy’s reckless vow to get Americans onto the moon. The producers trawled through hours and hours of original NASA footage to find spectacular, unfamiliar material. They remastered everything so that the footage, most of it colour, looks as good as new.
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Andrew Hedley
flicksBritish Documentarian David Sington has assembled together all the old codgers from the Apollo space missions (with Neil Armstrong conspicuously absent) to tell their stories. These craggy-faced old Yanks make for good company, providing humorous observations and moving philosophies about their voyages that took place between 1968 and 1972.
A reflective and inspiring documentary
This was wonderful... quite slow and reflective, but I came out feeling a bit enlightened. These people have had an experience that no other humans have... as one astronaut points out, from the moon, you can hide the world - with all its war, troubles, conflict, problems and everyone you've ever known - behind your thumb. That's perspective.
Personal stories of the great adventure of the century
While this movie will never convince certain people of the veracity of the tale, for those who are interested in the story of the men who went to the Moon and returned this will be entertaining, eye-opening and sometimes puzzling. Visually stunning, remastered NASA and television footage come sto life to capture the various fads of teh decade-long...
Urban Cinefile
pressIt is impossible not to have a sense of awe and wonderment, watching this absorbing film. We hear about the feeling at lift-off: the buzz, the apprehension. There's even the sombre, sobering speech from then US President Richard Nixon, written 'just in case' the lunar module failed to lift off from the moon.
The Guardian
pressIn David Sington's wonderful, beautifully assembled documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, Apollo astronauts who landed on or circled the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s look back modestly, movingly and with insight on the experience. They had the right stuff then, and it has mellowed and matured into something even better. It's not to be missed.
Roger Ebert
pressWhen you were on the moon, they remember, you could blank out the Earth by holding up your thumb in front of your face. Yet they were struck by how large the planet was, and how thin and fragile its atmosphere, floating in an infinite void and preserving this extraordinary thing, life. And below, we were poisoning it as fast as we could.
BBC
pressThe heart of Sington's film, though, is the dry humour and boundless humility of his interviewees. In their wise and withered faces (more fascinating than any lunar landscape), the camera finds something almost ineffable – a spirit of adventure that transcends both politics and patriotism. It's a shame that the notoriously shy Neil Armstrong couldn't be tempted out to join them.
Flicks, Andrew Hedley
flicksBritish Documentarian David Sington has assembled together all the old codgers from the Apollo space missions (with Neil Armstrong conspicuously absent) to tell their stories. These craggy-faced old Yanks make for good company, providing humorous observations and moving philosophies about their voyages that took place between 1968 and 1972.
Urban Cinefile
pressIt is impossible not to have a sense of awe and wonderment, watching this absorbing film. We hear about the feeling at lift-off: the buzz, the apprehension. There's even the sombre, sobering speech from then US President Richard Nixon, written 'just in case' the lunar module failed to lift off from the moon.
The Guardian
pressIn David Sington's wonderful, beautifully assembled documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, Apollo astronauts who landed on or circled the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s look back modestly, movingly and with insight on the experience. They had the right stuff then, and it has mellowed and matured into something even better. It's not to be missed.
Roger Ebert
pressWhen you were on the moon, they remember, you could blank out the Earth by holding up your thumb in front of your face. Yet they were struck by how large the planet was, and how thin and fragile its atmosphere, floating in an infinite void and preserving this extraordinary thing, life. And below, we were poisoning it as fast as we could.
BBC
pressThe heart of Sington's film, though, is the dry humour and boundless humility of his interviewees. In their wise and withered faces (more fascinating than any lunar landscape), the camera finds something almost ineffable – a spirit of adventure that transcends both politics and patriotism. It's a shame that the notoriously shy Neil Armstrong couldn't be tempted out to join them.
A reflective and inspiring documentary
This was wonderful... quite slow and reflective, but I came out feeling a bit enlightened. These people have had an experience that no other humans have... as one astronaut points out, from the moon, you can hide the world - with all its war, troubles, conflict, problems and everyone you've ever known - behind your thumb. That's perspective.
Personal stories of the great adventure of the century
While this movie will never convince certain people of the veracity of the tale, for those who are interested in the story of the men who went to the Moon and returned this will be entertaining, eye-opening and sometimes puzzling. Visually stunning, remastered NASA and television footage come sto life to capture the various fads of teh decade-long...
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