In The Shadow Of The Moon

Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the moon and 12 men walked upon its surface.

They remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. David Sington directs this feature-length documentary, using re-mastered footage and a laborious lip-synch process to bring new detail to the accounts of the first moon-landings.

The score from composer Philip Sheppard kicks in along with some first-hand reports from the original (and usually media-reluctant) crew, and immediately reminds the viewer of the enormity of the events described.

It is all too easy to brush aside the feats of engineering and human effort that make our lives what they are today: so too the landings of the Apollo missions. Former astronaut Charlie Duke tells how his elderly father could only just come to terms with the Wright brother’s achievements, yet his five-year-old son took space travel in his stride. This epic documentary drives home everything we’ve forgotten about this massive, crazy, inspiring success of human endeavour. Assuming it wasn’t faked in a desert of course.

The focus on the wider political context, as well as the personal emotional fallout for Aldrin, Armstrong et al, is interesting and probably informative for a younger audience not familiar with the space race and all that it represented. The desperation of America to not only succeed but to beat others to it could grate a little, but the focus is on how ‘we’ as mankind have accomplished, not how the US won.

In The Shadow Of The Moon is a fascinating and attractive piece of work, and the idea that from somewhere in the universe you can hide our entire world behind your thumb will stay with you for a while.

Extras: ‘Behind the Shadow’, ‘Scoring Apollo’ (a featurette about the composer Philip Sheppard) and Theatrical Trailer.

Released on 31st March 2008 by 4DVD.

Written by Amy Swales.