Tacticalin
An absolute waste of money
Lollivan
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Taha Avalos
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
derekph-1
I was expecting to like this more than I did. I was born in 1943, so I lived through all of the events chronicled in this film as an adult, and have seen lots of documentary coverage of those events. The subject is one that always inspires and moves me, so it seemed foolproof.But the way this film was constructed and edited did not work for me. I found the lack of narration or exposition a drawback. Even knowing as much as I do about the events, I did not realize that only twelve men have stepped onto the moon, from 1969 through 1972 (the film tells us all of that only at the end), and at the time this was made, only nine of them were still alive (that is never mentioned). Knowing those facts up front would have enhanced my appreciation of what I was seeing. Other statistics about the program would have been useful too - cost, number of people involved, etc. Those would help put it all in perspective more.Seven faces are a lot to keep track of, especially in the first part of the film, and especially when the editing cuts from one to another so quickly. Focusing on each of them separately, at least at first, would have been easier to follow, and to me more effective. Or the film should have used some device to identify them more clearly each time they appeared.Nor did I learn anything surprising about the subject, but it was interesting to find out what each of the seven men has done since, and how it affected them.I found the Columbus segment a waste of time. With some narrative background, or opinions of historians, it might have been interesting, but as presented it was just pointless.Eugene Cernan says we should have a permanent base on the moon - "It really is the key to our future." Why? More explanation of that would have been interesting to me, as well as what each of the other men thinks about that, or where he thinks the space program should go.Buzz Aldrin mentions that even right after the first landing, some Americans disapproved of the program. Further exploration of that would have been welcome. Not everyone (including me) thinks that the "benefits" of our space program have justified the cost, or that it makes sense to try to go back to the moon, or to Mars. In 1958, Nobel-prize winning physicist and mathematician Max Born called the space program "A triumph of the intellect, but a tragic failure of reason." I think that applies even more now.The title tells us that the makers of this film were trying to create an emotional experience, of course, not an intellectual one, and perhaps that is the problem. The emotion should grow out of an honest description of the events, not a contrived exploitation of them. For example, I thought the music was a bit manipulative.All in all, not a waste of time, but - at least for someone who already knows the subject pretty well - not a must-see.
Gregor Suhadolc
There is no question that the space/moon race was only a result of cold war. Unfortunately many people can't or won't forget that and still treats discovery of space as such, which is just ridiculously. The movie is nicely done, but still leaves an impression that's more like an advertisement and cover mostly the positive point of view together with known mistakes they made in the process. Unfortunately they do not cover most questions that are still unanswered to this day and they are just avoiding them, filling the space with "hero" material. I ask myself many times why would a man who walked on the moon gave so little commentaries on it and done so little public appearances, with his face always like he has a lemon in his mouth ... The movie is a nice documentary, but is also much more a commercial.p.s. Someone would think if they landed on the moon in 1969 when computer was a size of a car (or a few cars) that they would have weekly landings now days and not that they can't answer a few questions about it ... Don't you think so ?
Deidra
I could not disagree more with the previous posting that criticized "In the Shadow of the Moon". I thought "In the Shadow of the Moon" was exceptionally beautiful and inspiring - slightly more artistically done and poetic, in a way, as a film experience than "The Wonder of It All." "Shadow" did most certainly discuss all the other missions and the groundwork that earlier missions laid for the moon landings, plus the historical background of the entire space program. And the interviews in "Shadow" with Alan Bean and Gene Cernan (among others) were for the landings that followed Apollo 11. So it was not restricted to Apollo 11 only. Plus significant time was spent on Apollo 13. Both The Wonder of It All and In the Shadow of the Moon are important to see and cover similar content. "Shadow" interviews other astronauts while "Wonder" interviews only those who actually walked on the surface of the moon. Both are highly recommended.
steveg34
What an amazing film.I didn't know what to expect when I walked into an advance screening of this film several weeks ago. The space race has been covered ad nauseum in the past, most recently in the disappointing film In the Shadow of the Moon, which to me was just a rehash of the same old stuff. (Besides, they only concentrate on the Apollo 11 mission, when there were six missions that went to the moon. What about the other guys?) This film is different because it introduces the astronauts who walked on the moon as people. I didn¢t know anything about the different personalities of the astronauts before this film. But the seven astronauts featured are so different, and by the time the film is over you feel like you actually know them personally. It is as if you have been invited to their homes for a personal conversation.There are many subjects covered that I never thought of before. What does moon dust smell like and feel like? What happens after you walk on the moon, then have to find an occupation later? What do you think of when you look at the moon after being there many years ago? The style of the documentary is unlike anything I've ever seen before. There is no narration. It's made up of conversations with the astronauts that have been edited smoothly to make an ongoing dialogue. At first I didn¢t think it would work for the entire film, but there is a crescendo that happens that makes the whole film worthwhile and wonderful.I hope that this film comes out on DVD soon. I would like to own a copy. It is worth watching over and over
