Tropophilia

At first, I thought In The Shadow Of The Moon was going to be another ho-hum space documentary.

I saw an ad for the film while browsing the web a few weeks ago, and I almost scrolled right by.  I usually don’t pay attention to web ads, let alone click on them, but I took the bait on this one upon seeing Ron Howard’s name attached to it.  The film had received several honors and awards, but it was the enticing trailer that finally won me over.

 

And, as I’ve noted before, I’m a sucker for pretty much everything related to space.  So I queued it up on Netflix and waited patiently.

A week or so later, the mailman brought me my little red envelope.  I bought some beer, gathered some friends, and settled in to be entertained.  I was not entertained.  I was spellbound.

In The Shadow Of The Moon employs no narration.  Instead, a handful of the original astronauts involved in mankind’s first lunar adventures guide us in their own words.  The visuals alternate between clips from their interviews, and footage — some being shown for the first time — from the era in question.  The archive footage has been expertly edited and cleaned up, and it is very tastefully spliced with the interview scenes to create a very smooth viewing experience.  The whole thing is a work of art in itself.

I’ve seen some space documentaries in my day, mostly in middle and high school.  They were just that — documentaries: history lectures supplemented by so-so archive video and some mildly interesting interviews.  In The Shadow Of The Moon is vastly different.

This film focuses just as much on the story of the men who went to the moon as it does on the missions themselves.  In their own words, they tell you how thrown together the whole program was.  How they were proud to be accomplishing such a remarkable feat for their country and for mankind, yet simultaneously ashamed of themselves as their friends died by the dozens in Vietnam.  How they were scared $#!?less the whole time, from liftoff to splashdown.

In a way no other documentary on any subject has, In The Shadow Of The Moon took me on a trip back in time, and made me wonder just like the whole world did: “Are they actually going to pull this off?”  Of course I knew that they did pull it off eventually…  but I was literally on the edge of my seat, nonetheless.  The editors did such an amazing job of telling a story so real and enthralling that they make you forget that you already know how it ends.

Think about it: we strapped a couple of guys into a tin can, sat it on top of an enormous tank of highly combustible fuel, pointed it towards the moon, and lit a match.  When they got there, they dropped another tin can with two guys in it onto the surface of another planet.  If they took too much time picking a place to land, they wouldn’t have enough fuel to make it back up.  But they made it, and planted a flag.  There is an American flag on another planet.  What?!  Seventy years beforehand we didn’t have airplanes, and now we were walking on the moon.

Perhaps equally gripping is the diversity of enthusiasm shown by the interviewees.  Some are ecstatic about their experience and love sharing it with others.  Others are reserved, less detailed… and almost sound regretful.  For some it confirmed their faith in God… but I suspect for some of them, it shook it.  Some of them have and continue to relish the media attention; others are dog-tired of it.  Neil Armstrong, reclusive from the public for many years, refused to be interviewed.

It’s probably pretty clear that I highly recommend this movie.  Even if you are not interested in space or history, this tells a compelling story both about individuals who put it all on the line to accomplish something extraordinary, and the country who sent them to do it.  Check it out.