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In the Shadow of the Moon

Gorgeous high-def space

By MIKE MILIARD | September 12, 2007

3.0 Stars

TO THE MOON: David Sington realizes archival Apollo 11 footage and JFK's dream.

The archival footage in this absorbing documentary about NASA’s Apollo missions has been rescued from the vaults and restored to gorgeous high-def. Launch ignitions fulminate in fiery orange. Impossibly complicated control panels coruscate with blinking lights. And, over the horizon of a cratered lunar wasteland, cerulean Earth hangs vulnerable in blackness. Apollo 11’s Michael Collins remembers a chilly welcome: “I did not sense any great invitation from the moon for us to come into its domain.” But upon the crew’s return home, the reception was ecstatic. Splicing together interviews with the surviving Apollo crewmen (but no Neil Armstrong), David Sington’s workmanlike film is a reminder that JFK’s dream of sending a machine built of metal alloys “not yet been invented” and “fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch” was impossibly risky. But also rewarding. For a moment, the Earth was unified: “we” had gone to the moon.

Topics: Reviews , Neil Armstrong, NASA, David Sington, More

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