ScreenWize

Early on in this documentary about the twenty-four men who went on missions to the moon between 1968 and 1972, one former astronaut comments that his father – born before man had made a successful plane flight - could hardly believe that humans might walk on the moon, yet his son thought it to be no great feat. In The Shadow of The Moon aims to rekindle the sense of wonder and awe that went along with the Apollo space programme, initiated by President Kennedy to restore American pride in a decade marred by civil strife, the Cold War and the futile conflict in Vietnam.

British director David Sington doesn’t dwell on the strategic, the philosophical or the technical perspectives of the space race. His approach is to let the astronauts involved present a straightforward and practical account of their journeys across 380,000 kilometres of space and back. Interviews with Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins from Apollo 11 form the core of the story, with fascinating insights from Charles Duke – the astronaut back at Houston who led the communication with them and Neil Armstrong as they approached the moon. These, and other interviews with the surviving members of the Apollo programme (mostly now in their seventies) are accompanied by some stunning archival film footage. There’s the famous moment when Armstrong makes his one small step, but Sington’s researchers also dug out some new film footage – including views of the earth from space and of later Apollo astronauts driving the lunar vehicle across the eerie dead surface of a half-lit moon.

It’s a romanticised memoir of events and the storytellers are presented as humble men playing their small part in a great, and perhaps spiritual adventure. We are frequently reminded that these few men remain the only humans who have ever seen the earth from space, and they share their unique views on what this meant to them at the time. Glossed over quickly are the deaths of the three members of what became known as Apollo 1, as well as the dramatic failure of Apollo 13. Neil Armstrong’s notable absence from the film isn’t commented upon and there’s no attempt to assess the impact or legacy of programme as a whole. But for those who do remember looking up at the sky that day in July 1969, the film will bring back some moving memories. It’s also a chance to understand – from the men who were there - what it would have been like looking back.

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon