Apollo 11

With the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing being celebrated this year, there was bond to be a few new documentaries. There are so many that have been made over the decades about this mission that any new documentary requires something unique so that people will watch it. "Apollo 11" does have some special and previously unseen footage to experience. The filmmakers also employed a certain approach to set it apart from other documentaries but the final product suffer from a slow pace.

This documentary belongs in the "direct cinema" genre and the only other film that I have seen that comes closest to that genre is "Waking Sleeping Beauty". This approach involves no narration and uses only period interviews/footage. The effect this has on the audience is that it puts us back in the time period being covered. While I prefer a retrospective-kind of documentary, I can see the benefits of this style of documentary filmmaking. We can thank the foresight of NASA for the filming parts of the actual mission on 70mm film because that is what makes this documentary unique. This footage has never been released until now probably because there was no way to exhibit it previously, Even after the 70mm film format became somewhat mainstream with IMAX, the footage remained preserved in archives. With how much preserved media there is, the 70mm footage was somewhat forgotten about. It has now become possible to digitize this footage and so, upon its discovery while the filmmakers were working with various agencies, the footage was transferred from Washington DC to New York by way of climate-controlled transportation. The digitization and restoration of this 70mm footage was perfect and not much optimizing was required because of its original 70mm format. The result is some shots that look absolutely amazing on the IMAX screen. Around the time of this film being produced, audio was synced with mission control footage and so that was put to use. I took note of the various countdowns and numerical information that was displayed throughout the film. When the Eagle is descending to the lunar surface for example, we are able to see just how much fuel is left before the mission needs to be aborted. This adds drama and also explanation for those not familiar with how men travelled to the moon. I will say that the film was a little slow and more directed at those who value pure realism. Not only do I prefer documentaries that look back and comment on the action but I also enjoy those films that add a bit of extra drama by way of various cinematic aspects.

This show needs to be viewed on the IMAX screen in order to fully appreciate it but another quality I take into consideration when rating any movie is the lasting value. Will it be enjoyable multiple times and in a home setting? I don't think "Apollo 11" has a huge amount of lasting value but nevertheless, the documentary is unique. That is important considering the subject matter and how much it has been covered over the course of half a century.

3.5 Stars out of 5