In the Shadow of the Moon

Last night Jason and I went to see a press preview of In the Shadow of the Moon at the Senator. It is a Ron Howard produced documentary of the quest for the moon as told by the astronauts. There is new archive footage that had been lost and recently found. Nothing in the story was particularly new, but the telling of it was different. As someone who did not live through the space race I know more about it from movies than history class. The astronauts have always seemed sorta mythical to me: men' s men with bluster and courage. The interviews with these 70 year old men show them as real human beings who had a cool job; it doesn't downplay their place in history, but it certainly made me see them as people. Also, i don't think i realized how smart they are or that the original astronauts actually helped to design the Apollo vehicles. Plus, some of these guys - especially Michael Collins- were hilarious in their interviews. There was no Neil Armstrong, but that isn't a big surprise. I really enjoyed the movie. I'm not a big documentary person, but it was cool to see all of these iconic images on the big screen. If you like documentaries or have interest in the space race, I would recommend this movie. It will be playing at the Senator for ONE WEEK starting on Friday.