Astronauts’ Trip to Moon Still Inspires Awe, Wonder
By Soren Andersen, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.
Sep. 28–They’re old men now. In their 70s, their hair mostly snowy (those who still have hair), their faces lined, they’re 10 ancient mariners who have voyaged where only a handful of others have ever ventured. They’re men who have gone to the moon.
The last two men to walk on the moon, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, did so in December 1972. They’re in “In the Shadow of the Moon.” So is Buzz Aldrin, who, along with Neil Armstrong, made history in 1969 as the first men to set foot on the lunar surface. Armstrong, famously reticent, resisted entreaties from the filmmakers to appear on camera to talk about his famous “one giant leap for mankind” moment. (A number of other living Apollo program crew members also are absent.) But Armstrong is vividly present in the recollections of his colleagues, who speak of him in awed tones as being one cool and collected customer.
It’s the astronauts’ own words that make this documentary so riveting. There is no narration. What we hear are first-person recollections with no filter. Their words, and archival footage, much of which has lain unseen in NASA vaults for decades, along with a haunting orchestral score, have been assembled by director David Sington into an enthralling tapestry that takes us from the early days of the space program, when U.S. rockets kept blowing up during launch, to the triumphant landings on the moon.
What comes through most strongly in the astronauts’ words is a sense of joyous wonder, wonder that it was done and that they were the ones who did it … for all mankind.
Soren Andersen: 253-597-8742, Ext. 6235
soren.andersen@thenewstribune.com * * * * *
In the Shadow of the Moon
Director: David Sington
Cast: Astronauts who went to the moon
Running Time: 1:40
Rating: PG, mild language
Where: Grand Cinema, 606 S. Fawcett Ave., Tacoma; showtimes,
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