Apollo doco demands a sequel
Review Apollo 11 (E, 93 mins) Directed by Todd Douglas Miller Reviewed by James Croot ★★★★1⁄2
Surely this finally puts paid to those conspiracy theories that the 1969 Moon landing was faked. Or does it? Ever since Neil Armstrong ‘‘took one small step’’ on our sole natural orbiting satellite there have been those who thought it had all been staged, a la Hollywood (an idea explored in the brilliant 1978 mission to Mars thriller Capricorn One). Everything from odd shadows to the lack of stars and an American flag ‘‘flutter’’ have been used as ‘‘evidence’’.
But now we have Todd Douglas Miller’s stunning soup-to-nuts (or rather pre-launch checks to postflight quarantine) look at Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins’ trip aboard Apollo 11 (slightly disappointingly arriving in New Zealand cinemas some six weeks after the 50th anniversary celebrations).
Assembled from a recently discovered archive of 65mm Nasa footage and more than 11,000 hours of audio recordings, it’s a fascinating and surprisingly tense audio-visual montage of a historic few days in human history.
But despite a commitment to
retelling events exactly as they happened (even Matt Morton’s atmospheric soundtrack uses only instruments available in 1969), it’s hard not to feel the same thrills as watching a Hollywood blockbuster.
Witnessing Armstrong’s heart rate monitor spike as he and Aldrin attempt to land the ‘‘Eagle’’ is gripping. The comic relief comes from capsule communicator Charlie Duke as he relays the message that: ‘‘You’ve got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again,’’ once word comes through of a successful touchdown.
Yes, there have been plenty of documentaries about the Apollo missions, filled with historians, astronauts and other talking heads, but there’s not been anything quite like this.
This offers never-seen-before views (Miller making very effective use of split screens) and removes the chatter and clutter, other than the back and forth between the travelling trio and Mission Control.
Best watched on as big a screen as possible, Apollo 11 isa compelling look at the culmination of centuries of dreaming and months and years of planning – and a time when we thought anything was possible when it came to space exploration by humans.