In the Shadow of the Moon
Encyclopedia
In the Shadow of the Moon is a 2006 British
documentary film
about the United States
' manned missions to the Moon. It premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
, where it won the World Cinema Audience Award. In March 2008, it was the first film to win the Sir Arthur Clarke Award
for Best Film Presentation. It was given a limited release
in the United States on September 7, 2007, and in Canada on October 19, 2007. It was released on DVD in the United States on February 22, 2008, and March 31, 2008, in the United Kingdom.
made by the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The documentary reviews both the footage and media available to the public at the time of the missions, as well as NASA
films and materials which had not been opened in over 30 years. All of this has been sourced and remaster
ed in HD
by the stock footage company Footagevault
. Augmenting the archival audio and video are contemporary interviews with some surviving Apollo era astronaut
s, including Al Bean
, Michael Collins
, Buzz Aldrin
, Charlie Duke, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt
. The former astronauts have the only speaking roles in the movie, although occasional supplementary information is presented on screen with text and archival television footage presents the words of journalists such as Jules Bergman
and Walter Cronkite
. Neil Armstrong
, the first person to set foot on the Moon, declined to participate, the only surviving moon walker to do so.
The documentary shares its name with a book
by space historians Colin Burgess
and Francis French
, and both include many original interviews with Apollo lunar astronauts. The documentary offers a view of the Apollo program that is complementary to the book and is neither a source nor a tie-in.
, which was an earth-orbit shakedown mission, were represented in the film. The film is presented by Ron Howard
, but there is no narration in the film.
Apollo 11
Apollo 16
Apollo 17
reported In the Shadow of the Moon had an average score of 84 out of 100, based on 34 reviews, classifying the film's reception as "Universal Acclaim."
Entertainment Weekly
rated the movie an A, with reviewer Owen Gleiberman commenting that watching the film "was like to travel to the Moon and back" The Los Angeles Times
called the film a "fresh and compelling film, made with intelligence and emotion" Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter
concluded that "The value of this film, not just to moviegoers today but to future generations, is simply enormous."
On June 23, 2008 the Independent Investigations Group (IIG) awarded In the Shadow of the Moon for promoting skepticism
in media, with the award received by producer Duncan Copp.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
' manned missions to the Moon. It premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
2007 Sundance Film Festival
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007 in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival...
, where it won the World Cinema Audience Award. In March 2008, it was the first film to win the Sir Arthur Clarke Award
Sir Arthur Clarke Award
The Sir Arthur Clarke Award is a British award given in recognition of notable contributions to space exploration, particularly British achievements. It is owned by the Space Education Trust and is independent of and separate from . Founded in 2005, the awards are an annual event. They take place...
for Best Film Presentation. It was given a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
in the United States on September 7, 2007, and in Canada on October 19, 2007. It was released on DVD in the United States on February 22, 2008, and March 31, 2008, in the United Kingdom.
Synopsis
In the Shadow of the Moon follows the manned missions to the MoonMoon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
made by the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The documentary reviews both the footage and media available to the public at the time of the missions, as well as NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
films and materials which had not been opened in over 30 years. All of this has been sourced and remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ed in HD
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
by the stock footage company Footagevault
Footagevault
Footagevault is a stock photography company, founded in 2006. The company sells royalty-free and rights-managed video footage and audio clips. It currently specialises in the space flight and space exploration. Archive film sourced by Footagevault formed the basis of the 2007 documentary feature...
. Augmenting the archival audio and video are contemporary interviews with some surviving Apollo era astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s, including Al Bean
Alan Bean
Alan LaVern Bean is a former NASA astronaut, engineer, and painter. Bean was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3. He made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12, the second manned mission to land on the Moon, at the age of thirty-seven years in...
, Michael Collins
Michael Collins (astronaut)
Michael Collins is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, in which he and command pilot John Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins...
, Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history...
, Charlie Duke, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt
Harrison Schmitt
Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt is an American geologist, a retired NASA astronaut, university professor, and a former U.S. senator from New Mexico....
. The former astronauts have the only speaking roles in the movie, although occasional supplementary information is presented on screen with text and archival television footage presents the words of journalists such as Jules Bergman
Jules Bergman
Jules Bergman , a broadcast writer and journalist, served as Science Editor for ABC News from 1961 until his death in 1987. He is most remembered for his coverage of the American space program....
and Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
. Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
, the first person to set foot on the Moon, declined to participate, the only surviving moon walker to do so.
The documentary shares its name with a book
In the Shadow of the Moon (book)
In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility is a 2007 non-fiction book by space historians Francis French and Colin Burgess...
by space historians Colin Burgess
Colin Burgess (author)
Colin Burgess is an Australian author and historian, specializing in space flight and military history. He is a former customer service manager for Qantas Airways, and a regular contributor to the collectSPACE online community. He lives in New South Wales...
and Francis French
Francis French
Francis French is a book and magazine author from Manchester, England, specializing in space flight history. He is a former director of events for Sally Ride Science, and a director at the San Diego Air & Space Museum....
, and both include many original interviews with Apollo lunar astronauts. The documentary offers a view of the Apollo program that is complementary to the book and is neither a source nor a tie-in.
Participants
Ten of the twenty-four astronauts who orbited, looped around, or landed on the Moon appear on camera. Six of the remaining fourteen astronauts who reached the vicinity of the Moon have died. The remaining eight were not featured in the film. All manned Apollo flights with the exception of Apollo 7Apollo 7
Apollo 7 was the first manned mission in the American Apollo space program, and the first manned US space flight after a cabin fire killed the crew of what was to have been the first manned mission, AS-204 , during a launch pad test in 1967...
, which was an earth-orbit shakedown mission, were represented in the film. The film is presented by Ron Howard
Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard is an American actor, director, and producer. He came to prominence as a child actor, playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years...
, but there is no narration in the film.
Apollo 11Apollo 11In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
- Buzz AldrinBuzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history...
, Lunar Module Pilot - Michael CollinsMichael Collins (astronaut)Michael Collins is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, in which he and command pilot John Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins...
, Command Module Pilot
Apollo 16Apollo 16Young and Duke served as the backup crew for Apollo 13; Mattingly was slated to be the Apollo 13 command module pilot until being pulled from the mission due to his exposure to rubella through Duke.-Backup crew:...
- John Young, Commander (also Apollo 10Apollo 10Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the American Apollo space program. It was an F type mission—its purpose was to be a "dry run" for the Apollo 11 mission, testing all of the procedures and components of a Moon landing without actually landing on the Moon itself. The mission included the...
CMP) - Charles Duke, Lunar Module Pilot (also Apollo 11Apollo 11In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
CapCom )
Apollo 17Apollo 17Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the...
- Eugene Cernan, Commander (also Apollo 10Apollo 10Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the American Apollo space program. It was an F type mission—its purpose was to be a "dry run" for the Apollo 11 mission, testing all of the procedures and components of a Moon landing without actually landing on the Moon itself. The mission included the...
LMP) - Harrison SchmittHarrison SchmittHarrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt is an American geologist, a retired NASA astronaut, university professor, and a former U.S. senator from New Mexico....
, Lunar Module Pilot
Reception
Critics gave the film very positive reviews. MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported In the Shadow of the Moon had an average score of 84 out of 100, based on 34 reviews, classifying the film's reception as "Universal Acclaim."
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
rated the movie an A, with reviewer Owen Gleiberman commenting that watching the film "was like to travel to the Moon and back" The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
called the film a "fresh and compelling film, made with intelligence and emotion" Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
concluded that "The value of this film, not just to moviegoers today but to future generations, is simply enormous."
On June 23, 2008 the Independent Investigations Group (IIG) awarded In the Shadow of the Moon for promoting skepticism
Scientific skepticism
Scientific skepticism is the practice of questioning the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence or reproducibility, as part of a methodological norm pursuing "the extension of certified knowledge". For example, Robert K...
in media, with the award received by producer Duncan Copp.
External links
- Official site (UK)
- Official site (US)