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The Space Movie (1979)
Not only intensely boring, but factually inaccurate as well
One of the most annoying aspects of this poorly produced "documentary" is its abysmal editing. Aside from the utter lack of chronological presentation (showing a shuttle orbiter test flight before the Apollo 11 splashdown is more than a bit confusing), there seems to be a lack of knowledge that the Apollo and Gemini programs were not the same, and that maybe they shouldn't intercut video of the slender black Gemini capsule with that of the much larger Apollo command module. The near total absence of narration does not help this problem in the least. Also, who decided that the only footage of astronauts to be shown would be people just dicking around on the surface of the moon, or playing catch and spinning around inside Skylab? What about science? The narrator mentions that we spent two billion dollars on the Skylab project, apparently because it was a neat idea. There is never any mention of the purpose of these various NASA programs, and never a mention of Gemini, despite the program's capsules appearing as stand-ins for the Apollo CM from time to time.
As pointed out earlier they do mention the shuttle. However, they also include this line during it's brief segment. "While testing, it was launched from the back of a 747 to service Skylab and return safely to the earth." There are two major issues with that statement. Let's begin with the "launched from the back of a 747" part. While technically a launch, the orbiter pictured in the video is the 'Enterprise' "Approach and landing Test" vehicle. (i.e. it was never intended, or structurally capable of enduring the forces present in either a real launch or re-entry). That, and the orbiter cannot be launched into space from a 747, especially when it lacks the necessary rocket engines. The bit about servicing Skylab was apparently an idea at NASA, but due to Skylab's reentry and destruction in the upper atmosphere in July, 1979, this would be impossible. Considering this films release date, you would think they should have known this.
The entire movie is just one huge example of how little the producers actually knew about NASA. It's as if they took a bunch of NASA stock footage, set it to an intrusively loud, overbearing, inappropriate soundtrack, added some inane comments about what food the Apollo-Soyuz astronauts/cosmonauts ate during their mission and released it to frolic with all the factually incorrect school textbooks floating around the country. There are really too many errors and omissions in the seemingly random mix of footage to note here, or probably for me to notice. But I assure you, if I did not know better I would be dumber for having seen this pathetic presentation about my country's space program.
What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? (2004)
There is one word that discredits this film......Ramtha
Seriously, we have scientists, researchers, intellectuals, and a 25,000 year old Atlantian who thinks the best way to express himself is through a gaudily dressed, overly dramatic, middle aged, overweight white woman. Being of an open mind myself, I will still entertain this possibility. However, it should be noted that if Atlantis did exist, it was not the hyper-advanced one presented to us in Donnelly's "The Antediluvian World." But instead, they were a people that had indoor plumbing and similar advancements before most other civilizations of their time.
Aside from that is the immense leap in logic from quantum physics to a discussion of peptides. I must have completely missed the link between superposition of quantum particles and tiny jello monsters that control every aspect of my personality. To that end, I thought the Polish wedding scene was grossly unnecessary and was simply used to pad the running length of the film.
Basically, this was a 1 hour documentary (with lots of commercials) that for some reason felt it could "connect" with people by using a poorly illustrated side story to back up what was being presented by Ramtha et al. I would also like to know why this film was shown at a one screen art theater (Harkins Valley Art, Tempe) for 9 MONTHS! During this time, if they had an independent/foreign film, it was shown at a nearby mainstream theater. They don't even keep Oscar-worthy material there for more than a couple weeks, so why this crap?