In the Shadow of the Moon

My girl friend called me yesterday morning. She wanted us to go see a
movie that evening. Something called “In the Shadow of the Moon”. I'd
never heard of it, and the title suggested it was a chick-flik. It
isn't. It's an Apollo documentary. Rather good, in fact.

It consists of intercut interviews with most of the remaining Apollo
astronauts, contemporary coverage, and period TV commercials added for
spice. The interviews are recent, and the guys are more articulate than
usual. The old footage looks better than ever – digitally cleaned up,
perhaps?

A clip of the old I've Got a Secret showed a Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong,
whose secret was that their son Neil had just been named an astronaut.
The quizmaster may have been the first person ever to ask them if they
thought their son would ever go to the Moon.

Centerpiece of the show was an extended session on the launch of Apollo
11. This is the first time, ever, that I've seen a film get the sound
right! From anywhere a cameraman might be standing, the sound of the big
engines igniting is heard *after* the rocket leaves the pad. Other films
move the soundtrack up so the sound matches the ignition, ignoring the
fact that it takes at least 15 seconds for the sound to travel from pad
to cameraman.

On the other hand, we heard Gene Cernan explaining that he had trained
so long and hard to fly the Saturn V by hand that he almost wanted a
guidance-system failure so that he could actually do it. I have no doubt
that he had that training. I doubt that he had that training at the time
of Apollo 11. I'm certain that he wasn't in a position to take over
during the Apollo 11 launch – he was on the ground! It is a common
practice in documentaries to edit the order of bits of interviews for
the best flow of the story, even at the expense of historical accuracy.
sigh...

Both stagings were shown from the onboard cameras. We've seen this
footage many times before, but I don't think I've ever seen them looking
this good, and it is rare to see it uncut. When the interstage falls
away, it looks like it is burning – can't be, as the second stage hasn't
started yet. Anyone know it looks like the ring looks like it is
surrounded by flam?

The biggest disappointment: Armstrong wasn't interviewed.

Watch the credits. The astronauts were asked what they thought about the
moon hoax. The answers are amusing,. My favorite: “if it was a hoax, why
did we do it 12 times?”

New material was shot on HD digital and looked pretty good.
Cinematography was TV-style, with most of the talking heads being framed
as chin-to-mid-forehead. Rather harsh on even a small movie theater
screen. The film looked like a not fully polished cut. Several slugs
between scenes, and after the final credits, the screen when white, not
black.

Well worth seeing, but you might want to wait for it to show up on TV
rather than paying for a theater ticket.

--
Kevin Willoughby lid

Kansas City, this was Air Force One. Will you change
our call sign to SAM 27000? -- Col. Ralph Albertazzie