A film so immersive it felt like being on the Saturn V
There’s a veritable space race of programming to mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, but the breathtaking docudrama 8 Days: To the Moon and Back (BBC Two) will surely go down as the best. Director Anthony Philipson’s feature-length film cleverly combined newly declassified cockpit audio recordings with hi-tech digital effects and dramatic reconstructions to recreate the Apollo 11 mission as it unfolded, from blast-off to splashdown. The result was so intimate and immersive that it felt like being not just aboard that Saturn V rocket, but actually inside those pressure helmets.
We’ve all seen the historic images and heard the famous quotes but this provided a thrillingly fresh perspective. Transmissions between the three astronauts and Mission Control in Houston were no longer muffled and scratchy but clearly audible and downright fascinating. There was wry banter between Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, and warm camaraderie with their colleagues in the control room.
Some of the standout moments, though, were the quiet ones: when the astronauts lost contact with the ground or gazed awestruck at the
view. (“Goddamn, that’s pretty,” said Armstrong, watching the sunrise over the horizon.) Close-ups on their anxious faces humanised the momentous events, with Rufus Wright’s portrayal of Armstrong especially captivating.
Back on Earth, clips of broadcasting titan Walter Cronkite (anchoring “CBS News’ colour coverage, sponsored by Kellogg’s”) brought home how the world was watching and waiting with a sense of wonder. When the Eagle landed at Tranquillity Base, there were broad smiles in space and proud tears back home.
A masterclass of seamless editing, this was engrossing, emotive and visually stunning. Surprisingly tense, too, considering we knew the outcome. When a vital switch broke, a system alarm sounded or they overshot their lunar landing site, I held my breath. I was born 12 months later, so this was the closest I’ll get to the feelings experienced by the global audience of 600m who witnessed the event live on TV. Indeed, it brought out the little boy in me. Suddenly I wanted to be a spaceman again.
Some of the patriotic flag-waving might have stuck in the craw slightly but you could forgive the Americans their moment. This film really was a glorious piece of work.
‘It’s time to take our country back.” The Left Behind (BBC Three/ One) was a gut-punch single drama about the rise of far-right hate crime in “forgotten Britain” – workingclass communities in our postindustrial towns, where poverty allows anti-immigrant sentiment to ferment.
Based on real-world research, the hard-hitting film, from the makers of the Bafta-winning Murdered By My Father and Murdered By My Boyfriend, told the story of vulnerable Cardiff youngster Gethin (Sion Daniel Young), who came to believe that Muslims were responsible for his woes.
Gethin was scraping by on a zero-hours contract at a fried chicken joint and sleeping on sofas. When the council found housing for his sister’s young family, there was no room for Gethin because, he kept being told, he wasn’t “a priority”. He questioned why he’d been “left behind” in his own country and become “a ghost”, slipping through society’s cracks unseen.
Despite his sweet crush on Asian neighbour Yasmin (Ackley Bridge’s Amy-leigh Hickman), Gethin gradually began listening to extremist views and succumbed to Islamophobia, blaming “queuejumpers” for his escalating problems. He donned a sinister pig mask to petrol-bomb a halal butcher’s, starting a fire which killed Yasmin’s brother.
Young’s compassionate performance was heart-wrenchingly raw, accentuated by the haunted expression on his gaunt face. A future awaits in Dickensian period drama. And with the far-right on the march, this was a necessary and all too plausible insight into the skewed motivations behind their hostility. It was also a damning indictment of austerity’s impact on desperate people without a safety net, giving voice to those rarely heard. Alarming statistics flashed on-screen. One scene at a chaotic housing meeting was particularly eye-opening.
The script lacked nuance and the supporting performances felt a tad Children’s Film Foundation at times. Yet it was, none the less, an undeniably powerful depiction of a very real issue.
8 Days: To the Moon and Back ★★★★★ The Left Behind ★★★