(2007) From 1968 to 1972 NASA sent nine Apollo missions to the moon with 24 different astronauts aboard the spacecraft; director David Sington's documentary film recounts their history. President John F. Kennedy boldly challenged America to accomplish before the end of the '60s landing a man on the moon: "Do it right and do it first."

Three astronauts - Grissom (aware of the potential problem of exposed wiring in the capsule but told a colleague he couldn't say anything or "they'd fire me"), White, and Chaffee - died in an accident in 1967 while preparing for the first flight. Those with "The Right Stuff" involved in training for Apollo missions seemed all but oblivious to the Vietnam War, civil rights, the women's movement, and a cultural revolution; all two dozen were white males.

We see again the fantastic slo-mo photography of the launch from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral - bright blazing brilliance - while inside the astronauts experienced the gimble of the engines, tremendous shaking, vibrations, and sudden rush to zero gravity. From daylight the entire journey into darkness … in the shadow of the moon.

Three days up and three days back: Apollo 13 nearly didn't return. At re-entry the capsule plunges into the Earth's atmosphere at 26,000 miles per hour (13 times the velocity of a rifle bullet).

Interviews with Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13), orbited the moon in December 1968 and heroically returned with his crew following an explosion on 13; Mike Collins (Apollo 11), remained in the command capsule while Armstrong and Aldrin first set foot on the lunar surface; Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and 17), remarks on spiritual awakening, there "has to be a Creator"; Alan Bean (Apollo 12), exhilaration afterward, "Boy, we're lucky to be here"; Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), claims to be first to relieve himself on the moon; Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), felt an "epiphany"; Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17); Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), confesses to feelings of "awe and excitement" followed by a religious conversion - walking on the moon for three days, walking with God for eternity; both John Young (Apollo 10 and 16) and David Scott (Apollo 9 and 15), express concern for the need to take better care of our planet.

"It's not fear; it's worry," says Collins of being in space; he speaks of the Earth, a jewel hanging in the black of space, as looking "fragile" from 240,000 miles away. Cool and controlled, Neil Armstrong had difficulties locating a suitable landing site for the Eagle on the boulder-strewn surface, with fuel running low: "The Eagle has landed." Reclusive and unwilling to participate in the filming, Armstrong preceded Aldrin down the ladder: "One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."

Several of the astronauts address the conspiracy theories that none of this actually happened.

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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