Film Reviews

In the Shadow of the Moon

• Rating:
• Director: David Sington.
• Starring: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins, Alan Bean.
• Details: UK / US / 100mins (U).

"My father, who was born around the time the Wright brothers took flight, thought it was unbelievable. My five-year-old son didn't think it was a big deal." Space launches don't create headlines these days, but this documentary isn't exactly a devotion to the study of the effects of weightlessness on tiny screws, and the logistics of that back here on Earth. No, if we actually sit back and think about it - we put a man on the moon, and it's the 'we' that pervades Sington's documentary; not NASA, not America, but mankind. In The Shadow Of The Moon is a step-by-step guide to the moon landing without getting bogged down in the nuts and bolts, and the rookie director has a knack of making the 1969 moon landing feel like it happened yesterday, allowing that massive achievement an opportunity to be gushed over again. With interviews from astronauts from the nine Apollo missions, Sington devotes more time to the three who made it there first - Armstrong (a mathematician), Aldrin (a different kind of mathematician) and Collins (a statistician). Out of the three it's Collins who's the most entertaining; funny, touching and insightful, he trims back the techie talk and the documentary is accessible because of it. There's even a spiritual, not religious, coda, which leaves the viewer with an overwhelming sense of well-being.

Review by Gavin Burke