Went to see this film recently with the boy. I was a bit apprehensive – it sounded like a rehash of For All Mankind, no narrator, original footage, interviews with astronauts etc. There was some cross-over inevitably, there’s only a limited amount of footage to go around after all, but it managed to be original and inspiring. It captures the pioneering spirit of the space age*, the intelligence and humour of the astronauts, and an event which brought the world together, looking out at night to an alien world, and, for the first time, knowing that someone was looking back. My only disappointment was that Al Worden and Fred Haise, the only Apollo astronauts I’ve had the pleasure to meet properly, weren’t interviewed
I do wonder why the Apollo programme captivates my attention as much as it does. The boy is interested as an engineer – you can see him thinking about how he would have approached something, or analysing why decisions were made – and because he’s been to NASA and wants to go back. I don’t have that excuse, but something about these men, their deprecating humour (OK, not Gene Cernan, but most of them!) and their descriptions of what they saw and felt is deeply moving. I will never get to be an astronaut, and the military aspects of the programme are totally against my beliefs, but it reminds me perhaps of what mankind can achieve. The age of exploration lives on.
Also very amused by some of the astronauts responses to the way they have been portrayed in the media. In For All Mankind the audio seems to date from not long after they flew, whereas in Shadow of the Moon we see old men after a life-time of being Space Men in the public eye. Mike Collins in particular (Command module pilot on Apollo 11) has been described as the loneliest man in history as he orbited the dark side of the moon, points out that he was 1) too busy to be lonely and 2) glad to get a break from the “yapping” of the CapCom at NASA.
But the key message of the movie to me is that these men are getting on, their numbers are already diminishing, and in another decade perhaps all will be gone. And what do we have to replace them? We talk about robotic missions, space stations, replacements for the shuttle, but what do we have to inspire the world as Apollo did? Maybe the Americans will come good on their planned missions to Mars, but do we have the spirit, the energy to support them?
*or at least, it agreed with my concept of it, having been born 3 years too late for Apollo!
