Apollo 11 2019
This documentary of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 forgoes narration, graphics, or interviews. Instead it is 93 minutes of the highlights of the mission and the only explanation is from contemporary news footage. Because there have been so many conventional documentaries, this approach can work pretty well for Apollo, though I still generally like documentaries to pack as much information as possible and give context. Supposedly the movie adds some footage that has been mostly out of the public eye, including some 70mm film that has been restored and looks fantastic (not the best parts of the mission). The mission footage is still disappointingly grainy or hard to make out. And they kind of race through the return trip, but then the footage continues through the credits, which is a nice touch. This movie hits most of the highlights of the 8-day mission plus covers some of the leadup and what happened afterwards, so it compresses a lot into a short span of time. I‘m not sure how much of what we are seeing is new and it would be good to have a director’s commentary to tell you the background of the newer material. So it is neat to watch, but kind of just touches the surface. To really understand it you would need to watch a documentary serial like 1998’s From Earth to Moon.
Written: 20 Feb 2022