A Celebration of Courage
I finally went to see In The Shadow of the Moon tonight in Shepherd's Bush. After some initial frustration (one of the staff kept claiming the screen wasn't ready, even up till 15 min after supposed start time!), I got in and found to my dismay that it had already started!
JFK in a speech to Special Joint Session of Congress in 1961:
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving thegoal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon andreturning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in thisperiod will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for thelong-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult orexpensive to accomplish.
Jim Lovell on Apollo 8 being changed from a Earth Orbit test to a Lunar flyby:
It was a bold move, it had some risky aspects to it, but this was a time when we made bold moves
The movie/documentary itself was ... emotional, awe-inspiring and cathartic. There was no narrative, just very rare NASA footage interspersed with interviews with 10 of the 24 astronauts that went to the moon (Michael Collins, Jim Lovell, Charlie Duke, John Young, Eugene Cernan, Alan Bean, Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott, Edgar Mitchell and Harrison Schmitt), 8 of them walked on the moon. It starts from Kennedy's speech committing the US to putting a man on the moon by the end of the sixties and follows it through to Apollo XVII, the last time someone set a foot on the moon. Hearing Michael Collins talk about he felt when he was orbiting the moon out of radio contact with Houston : the feeling was not loneliness, but as awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation".[some people had said of his day of solo flying around the moon: "not since Adam has any human known such solitude"]. I listened as Alan Bear gushed in admiration for Neil Armstrong, saying he could not have taken the burden of being the first man on the moon; or Buzz Aldrin describing that before he jumped of the final rung of the ladder he took care of some minor bodily function. They were funny, humble, proud, inspiring and above all fragile. I felt absolutely humbled watching them talk. Such a shame that the makers couldn't coax Neil Armstrong out of seclusion. Whilst the NASA footage was absolutely amazing , the real showstealers were the astronauts. Nearly all of them seemed to have acquired a sense of profound spiritualism since they walked on the moon.
Michael Collins at one point in the movie says the following:
People, instead of saying "well you Americans did it", everywhere we went they said "We did it, we the human race, we the people did it". And I thought that was a wonderful thing.
In a time when politics are dividing everyone, when everyone is afraid of everyone else, it is only grief that brings people together anymore. The moonlandings were the last great uniter in joy for mankind, I just hope it won't be the last. It makes me wish for the days of heroes and hope.
JFK in a speech to Special Joint Session of Congress in 1961:
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving thegoal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon andreturning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in thisperiod will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for thelong-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult orexpensive to accomplish.
Jim Lovell on Apollo 8 being changed from a Earth Orbit test to a Lunar flyby:
It was a bold move, it had some risky aspects to it, but this was a time when we made bold moves
The movie/documentary itself was ... emotional, awe-inspiring and cathartic. There was no narrative, just very rare NASA footage interspersed with interviews with 10 of the 24 astronauts that went to the moon (Michael Collins, Jim Lovell, Charlie Duke, John Young, Eugene Cernan, Alan Bean, Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott, Edgar Mitchell and Harrison Schmitt), 8 of them walked on the moon. It starts from Kennedy's speech committing the US to putting a man on the moon by the end of the sixties and follows it through to Apollo XVII, the last time someone set a foot on the moon. Hearing Michael Collins talk about he felt when he was orbiting the moon out of radio contact with Houston : the feeling was not loneliness, but as awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation".[some people had said of his day of solo flying around the moon: "not since Adam has any human known such solitude"]. I listened as Alan Bear gushed in admiration for Neil Armstrong, saying he could not have taken the burden of being the first man on the moon; or Buzz Aldrin describing that before he jumped of the final rung of the ladder he took care of some minor bodily function. They were funny, humble, proud, inspiring and above all fragile. I felt absolutely humbled watching them talk. Such a shame that the makers couldn't coax Neil Armstrong out of seclusion. Whilst the NASA footage was absolutely amazing , the real showstealers were the astronauts. Nearly all of them seemed to have acquired a sense of profound spiritualism since they walked on the moon.
Michael Collins at one point in the movie says the following:
People, instead of saying "well you Americans did it", everywhere we went they said "We did it, we the human race, we the people did it". And I thought that was a wonderful thing.
In a time when politics are dividing everyone, when everyone is afraid of everyone else, it is only grief that brings people together anymore. The moonlandings were the last great uniter in joy for mankind, I just hope it won't be the last. It makes me wish for the days of heroes and hope.