Apollo 11
Five Greats from Five Years Ago: Part 1 of 5
Apollo 11 (2019) opens without words. The largest tank belts you’ve ever seen are slowly rolling a rocket platform, complete with giant rocket, out to a launch pad on a humid Florida day. Any fans of Dune (2021), or dare I say, even, Dune: Part Two (2024) might draw a comparison to the spice mining vehicles that get airdropped into the desert to slowly roll along the sand until a sighting of wormsign. Families camping out across the brackish water from the launch pad wait to view the historic launch of the Apollo 11 mission, which would carry Michael Collins, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong to the moon. I find the images of the platform to be interesting: it’s not the first image that comes to mind for anyone thinking of the moon landing, but it’s an engineering marvel in its own right. It’s a symbol of the work required by millions of hands to get us to this point, the shoulders of giants we’re standing on. And despite the marvel that it is, it’s still just a forgotten link: once the rocket blasts off, it’s charred and forgotten, having done its part to get us to the next pair of shoulders to stand on.
The footage in this film, and not to overstate it, is stunning. The short sell of why you should watch Apollo 11 is that if you haven’t seen it, then you haven’t seen some of the best footage of actual space travel that exists. That’s it. No special effects. ACTUAL SPACE TRAVEL. You want to see real humans traversing space? (Probably) Have you seen actual footage of real humans traversing space before? (Probably not.) Watch this movie. At various points of the film, you will find yourself wondering: how on Earth does this look so good? The answer: 70mm baby! Reels of 70mm film were found in 2017 (while director Todd Douglas Miller was working with NASA to put the film together) showing crowd footage, mission control operations, launch, and other aspects of the mission. Awhile ago, when Christopher Nolan made Dunkirk (2017), Vox put together this great article detailing the differences in film stock, which includes a fantastic graphic to give you a better idea of the differences in film:
Stunning visuals aside, Director Miller makes another compelling choice: The film relies entirely on footage and audio from the period. Newscasts, NASA comms recordings, and home video are among the sources. Rather than layering contemporary voices on top that would likely be repeating something along the lines of “They made history, man!” we witness history in the same sequence that anyone living in the time, checking in daily during the 8-day-mission, would have experienced. Newscasts, NASA recordings, and home video are all you need to take a trip back to 1969 to experience the excitement and awe of humanity finding its way to the moon. Besides, saying things like “they made history, man!” is a job for movie blogs after the fact.
The pacing and the lack of contemporary narration not only gives you sharp insight into what it might have been like to experience this historic event in real time, it also provides ample space to reflect on this achievement in the context of history. I found the most interesting thing that happened to me while watching was the way my mind began to wander into more personal contexts. From the view of a movie buff: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) came out a year before this mission. Wow. From the view of my family: My Grandmother, the inimitable Joeann Townsend, who was born in 1929, closer in time to the first ever flight than to the moon landing, was 38 when she witnessed humans walking on the moon. This is after having lived through The Great Depression, WWII, the advent of commercial airline travel, and Beatlemania/Elvis. What was it like for my own Mother, 10 years old, knowing something big was happening that was distracting all the adults, but not quite being able to grok the significance? I consider the height of this achievement, and the issues we still struggle with today. I look back at the film and consider who wasn’t invited to participate in history.
What wonders we see while inhabiting this mortal coil! What giant’s shoulders are we standing on now that will be swept away by the bending sickle’s compass of time? Will humanity survive beyond this solar system? Why do I ponder in this way? The style and craft of Apollo 11, its use of footage and audio from 1969 to take you back in time, creates a deliberate and meditative tone that will give you the room to pontificate, ponder, and space out in equally grandiose measure.
Apollo 11
Directed and Edited by Todd Douglas Miller
2019
93 minutes
English
Recommended way to watch (at time of publication): Available to rent on all services.
You’ll like this if you like: For All Mankind (1989) Apollo 13 (1995), First Man (2018)
Not-So-Stray Thoughts from the Editor
It’s May! My favorite month? Probably. This May, we’re going to take a look at 5 greats from 5 years ago, AKA the magical year of 2019. While the year saw the release of some truly great films, like Parasite, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire, we’re going to focus on some of the films that you may have missed. Though I already poured my heart into a post about Doctor Sleep, so I’ll refrain from writing another treatise on this under-rated masterpiece. That you should still see if you haven’t. Ok maybe I’ll refrain. I’ll probably refrain.
Lastly, If you ever find yourself in the Bay Area, you should stop by the U.S.S. Hornet and take a look at their exhibit detailing the recovery of the craft and astronauts in the central Pacific, at 13 degrees 19 minutes North, 169 degrees 9 minutes West. Below deck you can look into the command module, the airstream the guys were quarantined in for days, and loads of other historical artifacts that now make their permanent home on the San Francisco Bay.