Audience Rated by buyers PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Type of bind: DVD
Format: Full Screen, NTSC
Running Time: 109 minutes
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I have a clear and vivid memory of Neil Armstrong's very first step on the moon because my brother made sure I would.
I was seven years old at the time. My brother, Daryl, a decade older than me, said, "You have to watch this and remember this. This is history." So I watched closely and made sure to remember; as did billions of other people around the world on July 21, 1969.
That wonderful historical moment and the hard work that led up to it is beautifully captured in the new documentary, In the Shadow of the Moon. Directed by David Sington, this film understandably won the audience prize at the Sundance Film Festival because it leaves viewers cheered and inspired.
It was rather astonishing to hear in the film President John F. Kennedy propose, almost promise, that America would be on the moon by the end of the decade. He acknowledges that the technology, and even some of the metal alloys, had not yet been developed, but assures the nation that these things will be discovered, and the job will be done.
It made me think of Proverbs 29:18 - "Without a vision, the people perish" (KJV). The sixties were a difficult time in the US -- war, assassinations, social upheaval - but the space program provided a vision of accomplishing great things.
God knows that we need big dreams. It can be too easy to become consumed by the petty details of life -- household chores, meeting budgets, running errands - which must be dealt with, but we can not believe those details are life. We need to be reminded that there are bigger things to be accomplished.
If you are a part of a church, you need to deal with the painting, the carpet and the tile. These are all good things. But you need to be dreaming about bigger things. Some scoffed at JFK's goal to reach the moon in less than a decade. It seemed impossible. But it could not have happened if it hadn't been proposed.
Congregations need to dream big dreams. Could we have a thousand people in our congregation? Could we support a Spanish language congregation that would be healthy and strong? Could we double, triple, quadruple our missions budget? Great things cannot happen without a great vision. And God's vision is greater than our own.
The heart of the film is the interviews with the Apollo astronauts. Most of these men are in their seventies, before long many of these men will be gone. So it is valuable to record their unique experiences.
Neil Armstrong, noted for his reclusive nature, is not interviewed, but he is well represented in news reel footage and the anecdotes of other astronauts. Armstrong's crew mates, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, provide a fascinating picture of that very first moon landing and the experience of being truly alone in space (though Collins says he never felt lonely).
An interesting coda in the end credits is a response of the astronauts to those who say that there was no moon landing, that it was all a hoax (a la Capricorn One). They scoff at the scoffers, postulating that such a lie could not have been kept quiet by so many people. One of the astronauts (John Young?) wonders why, if it was a fraud, they had to make so many fraudulent trips.
(Not mentioned in the film, the incident of Buzz Aldrin punching a moon launch skeptic in the nose. The punchee sued Aldrin, but the judge quickly threw the case out of court. This led one wag to say that Buzz Aldrin is the only person of whom it can be said that walking on the moon is the second coolest thing he ever did. Not that I would ever advocate such violence.)
Another astronaut notes that around any great historical event, conspiracy theories will abound. There are people who believe that the German Holocaust of the Jews never happened or that planes couldn't have taken down the World Trade Centers. No amount of evidence will convince these people otherwise.
Jesus recognized the stubborn nature of people. He performed miracle after miracle and yet most people of His time still doubted him. But He knew that skepticism would persist even after His resurrection. In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man he said, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." (Luke 16:31, NIV) There is vast evidence that the Bible is a reliable historical document, that Jesus was raised from the dead and that the world was created with intelligent design. But doubt will persist because admitting these truths would mean changing one's life.
It was interesting that toward the end of the film several of the astronauts confess that being in space made them consider the magnificence of the earth and space and the necessity of believing in a Creator. In fact, Charlie Duke in the film tells about how shortly after his trip to the moon he received Christ as his Lord and Savior. He says that though his trip to the moon was a great three day adventure, his adventure with God is forever. ... Read More
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"In the Shadow of the Moon" is a very first rate film that highlights the national effort to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade of the 1960's. It chronicles the early failures and the few successes as NASA experimented with rockets. Using interviews with the surviving astronauts and archival film footage, much of which has never been seen before, the film follows the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. It is a captivating film and the interviews with the astronauts, a risky venture since it had the potential to be boring and self-serving, is actually extremely interesting, funny, and heart-warming. I very first saw this film at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, NC and the film's director and producer were on hand. Strangely enough, they were British filmmakers who were interested in the race to the moon and gained unheard of acess to NASA's film footage and acess to the astronauts who were so willing to tell the true story behind mankind's greatest voyages. The film was later bought by Ron Howard for its theatrical release but, other than giving himself production credit at the beginning of the movie, Ron changed nothing in the film (a wise move on his part). I highly recommend this film to anyone with a remote interest in the space program, in American history, and who would simply just like to be entertained and/or remember back to a time when the whole world looked up with wonder and amazement.
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This is the BEST space flight video ever.It left me feeling as though I had actually met the astronauts in person.Do you have it in Blue-Ray?
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I enjoyed watching this myself, but my dad absolutely loved it. He was an engineer at NASA in the 60's and this brought back so many memories for him. He said that it was very accurate and that it gives so much "behind the scenes" information. He wanted our whole family to watch it because it helped us understand the work that he did while at NASA. If you have an older family member who worked for NASA or followed the space program closely, this will make a great gift!
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This documentary had some fantastic footage in it, and featured a very personal look at many of the astronauts who went to the moon. Overall, that is a very exclusive club: only about a dozen men ever did it in the history of the world and just eight or nine ever stepped foot on it. Most of them are still alive and they discuss their adventures, insights and personal feelings here.
One gets the feeling that the rest of us will never know exactly how beautiful the moon is except to take the astronauts' words about it, because even the pictures on this DVD can't convey that. It just looks dull and gray, but the men say it was spectacular. I believe them.
Since this documentary is about 100 minutes long, you get a lot of information. You also get reminded how close two of the three men who went up on that historic very first walk on the moon came to not making it home alive.
A glaring absence in this documentary - through no fault of the film-makers, is the most famous astronaut of them all: Neil Armstrong, the very first man to step foot on the moon! Apparently, he did not want to be part of this film. One of the astronauts, near the very end of this documentary, mentions something briefly about Armstrong being somewhat of a "recluse" now and it "being understandable with what he's gone through." From what I've read, a lot of people have tried to make money off him in shady ways and so now he's withdrawn from the public spotlight. Still, not having his thoughts on this historic mission is a real loss to this film and makes this story seem incomplete.
After a slow very first half hour, this really picks up when we travel along with Armstrong's Apollo 11 crew. Seeing slow-motion pictures of the lift-off and great shots of the earth are just awesome. The worldwide reaction to the sucess of this mission will bring a tear or two to your eyes.
This film, a legacy to the Apollo program and the brave men who ran it, should be in every schoolroom. It would make history a lot more interesting to students.
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