This is an excellent collection of seldom-seen footage, not only well-selected but also beautifully remastered, with great voice-overs and interviews from the astronauts and mission controll personnel. It was particularly good in its extensive use of command module pilot Michael Collins and CAPCOM Charlie Duke (who went on to walk on the moon himself with Apollo 16.) Discovery Channel is to be conrgartulated for making such a fine addition to the Apollo 11 film catalog.
However, the documentary has a serious downside: Erik Thompson. This guy has been doing voiceover work for the typical Discovery Channel schlock about ancient alien telepaths and the Loch Ness bigfoots for so long that he can no longer simply narrate, but insists on breathlessly inserting unneeded drama into an actual historic event that doesn't need to be "boosted" to be interesting; everything he says sounds like the stereotype movie preview voiceover that begins "In a world where..." His script is even worse. A typical example: some "shocking films reveal" astronauts and research subjects being subjected to vibration tests; this is interesting, not "shocking." Moreover, I counted AT LEAST THIRTY instances of the producers patting themselves on the back for their "discovery" of these clips which, although they look really nice in their restored glory, will be fairly familiar to anyone very familiar with the Apollo missions. In addition to the Apollo mission footage, there are shots of the vehicle assembly, astronaut training, news broadcast animations, and more. It's nice to see them cleaned up, and I can't recall any time they've all been assembled in one place like this, but these are hardly "hidden in the archives", "previously unseen footage", "newly uncovered film archives", rare film from the vaults", "deep in the NASA archives", "newly uncovered film", "treasure trove of forgotten films", et cetera et cetera ad nauseum. This kind of "look what we did!" promotion is perfect for the commercials, but is unnecessary and annoying in the documentary itself. Memo to Discovery Channel: YA DONE GOOD, this is a beautifully edited film, but it's not like you discovered the lost continent of Atlantis. We're already watching, so now roll the film and SHUT THE HELL UP about it!
Without these 30+ self-applied pats on the back, I would give this nine stars as one of the best non-technical documentaries I've ever seen about Apollo 11 (why is there no "11" in the title, by the way?) But the constant self-promotion verges on making it unwatchable with the sound on, so I'd actually rate it about a six. Why have I boosted that back up to 8 then? To counter the ignorant pinhead who gave it a zero because "man, everbuddy nose them there moon landin's wuz hoaxed."
However, the documentary has a serious downside: Erik Thompson. This guy has been doing voiceover work for the typical Discovery Channel schlock about ancient alien telepaths and the Loch Ness bigfoots for so long that he can no longer simply narrate, but insists on breathlessly inserting unneeded drama into an actual historic event that doesn't need to be "boosted" to be interesting; everything he says sounds like the stereotype movie preview voiceover that begins "In a world where..." His script is even worse. A typical example: some "shocking films reveal" astronauts and research subjects being subjected to vibration tests; this is interesting, not "shocking." Moreover, I counted AT LEAST THIRTY instances of the producers patting themselves on the back for their "discovery" of these clips which, although they look really nice in their restored glory, will be fairly familiar to anyone very familiar with the Apollo missions. In addition to the Apollo mission footage, there are shots of the vehicle assembly, astronaut training, news broadcast animations, and more. It's nice to see them cleaned up, and I can't recall any time they've all been assembled in one place like this, but these are hardly "hidden in the archives", "previously unseen footage", "newly uncovered film archives", rare film from the vaults", "deep in the NASA archives", "newly uncovered film", "treasure trove of forgotten films", et cetera et cetera ad nauseum. This kind of "look what we did!" promotion is perfect for the commercials, but is unnecessary and annoying in the documentary itself. Memo to Discovery Channel: YA DONE GOOD, this is a beautifully edited film, but it's not like you discovered the lost continent of Atlantis. We're already watching, so now roll the film and SHUT THE HELL UP about it!
Without these 30+ self-applied pats on the back, I would give this nine stars as one of the best non-technical documentaries I've ever seen about Apollo 11 (why is there no "11" in the title, by the way?) But the constant self-promotion verges on making it unwatchable with the sound on, so I'd actually rate it about a six. Why have I boosted that back up to 8 then? To counter the ignorant pinhead who gave it a zero because "man, everbuddy nose them there moon landin's wuz hoaxed."
