Movie Review by Will Arntz

“I remember thinking, that little thing out there is so fragile, that jewel - the Earth.” So said one of the handfuls of people who went to the Moon and back. They all talk about it, how seeing the Earth in space, seeing the Earth rise over the Moon changed how they would view the world, the Universe, and themselves.

This wonderful documentary is about the mission to the moon that President Kennedy kicked off in his famous speech to congress where he stated that by the decade end, we would land a man on the moon and bring them safely back. The space race was off and running.

The film itself features a wealth of never before seen footage, mastered from the original archives. The footage is considered so unique that it is stored under liquid nitrogen (remember we’re dealing with super-nerds here...), and has been brought out only a few times in the 60’s and 70’s.

There are many amazing aspects of the entire Apollo moon enterprise that are revealed in this film. First is the dedication of the 400,000 scientists, engineers, and technicians who worked together to achieve something that everyone thought simply impossible. Remember this was 40 years ago. Your cell phone has more computer power than the entire Apollo capsule.

Next is the story of the main line heroes - the astronauts - told in their own words. The filmmakers interviewed every one who is still on this planet who walked on that other one. Not only is the outer story interesting, but the inner one as well.

Across the board, everyone who went to the moon was transformed. And not just them. When those first pictures of our tiny jewel Earth appeared decades back, everyone was affected. In my opinion, those pictures moved forward our notion of ecology at least 20 years. Who’s to say what the mess were in now would be like if those pictures hadn’t appeared?

The universal appeal of this monumental feat is summed up in the film’s end as the astronauts recount their reception upon returning to terra firma. In the United States, it was wild ticker tape parades, TV shows and all the rest. And of course the government was not to let their victory in the space race go unnoticed worldwide. But as the astronauts toured the world, the overwhelming response was not “gee, its great you did it”, but “gee, its great we did it”.

Somehow seeing a fellow human, up there, on the moon, made everyone back here on our home feel like we were all in this together.

intheshadowofthemoon.com