On August 25, when the media began reporting on Neil Armstrong's death that day, it was continuously mentioned how he, the first human being to step foot on the moon, never felt like it was his personal achievement. Armstrong always felt that it was the accomplishment of the entire Apollo 11 crew, the previous Apollo astronauts and the thousands of scientists, engineers and others on the ground at NASA. No film better supports this idea than Al Reinert's 1989 documentary For All Mankind.
The film was made exclusively with NASA footage, since they filmed just about every moment of all of the Apollo missions. Reinert begins the film with President John F. Kennedy's 1962 speech, in which he challenged us to go to the moon. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard...” Those words are ingrained in our brains and seeing the men who actually accomplished that challenge makes you realize how farfetched it must have sounded in 1962. But after years of getting ready, NASA finally did it on July 20, 1969.
After the astronauts finally get their gear on and take that long ride up the elevator to the top of the rocket, the audience feels the pressure that those men in Mission Control felt. Just as they do, we hope that nothing goes wrong and once the astronauts leave the ground, we feel just as relieved. Then, the film moves into its second sequence, showing the astronauts' fantastic voyage from the earth to the moon. Some of the shots are just astounding and you have to thank NASA for every image. How, for example, someone thought that they needed a camera on the booster rocket so we can see the module flying in space is beyond me. That shot is one of the most awe inspiring in the film.
It took the astronauts days to reach the moon, so they had to do something to fill the time. We see them explaining on TV how they eat and we see some playing with a radio. When they finally approach the moon, everything gets serious quickly, as we hear those first words from Armstrong. You can never hear him say “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” enough.
My favorite sequence in the film is seeing the men actually on the moon, moving around and picking up samples. The return trip home is just as exhilarating as the ride back.
Reinert's most adventurous decision during the making of For All Mankind was to forgo all on-screen identification of anyone. This really shows how everyone made their mark on the Apollo program and that every discovery made was important. Yes, there is no way to underscore how important Apollo 11 was, but by not identifying it, we learn that Apollo 17 was just as important. The Apollo program as a whole was one of the most collaborative efforts Americans embarked on and the film really pays tribute to that.
Reinert also gets to take great advantage of Brian Eno's wonderful, atmospheric score. It's a score that really takes a back seat when the astronauts talk, but takes off when we see those beautiful vistas.
For All Mankind is not only a tribute to the Apollo missions, but to man's drive to explore. The fact that we just landed a machine on Mars proves that, even though we haven't gone to the moon since 1972, the drive to push the final frontier ever farther hasn't diminished. It remains one of the most enthralling films ever made about space travel, because, even 40 years later, it seems astonishing to know that man actually left this planet and landed on celestial body.
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