In the Shadow of the Moon.

"It's fitting that the World Cinema documentary award at the last Sundance film festival went to In the Shadow of the Moon, which reminds us of a seemingly distant time when the United States was not so alienated from the rest of the world," remarks Ed Gonzalez at Slant.

"A stirring account of the Apollo program's mission to the moon, as remembered by some of the few men ever to view the Earth from the other end of a telescope, David Sington's doc recaptures the thrill, the terror, and the heroism of man hurling himself into the void," writes Jim Ridley in the Voice. "Need a pick-me-up after the bitter foreign-policy failures reported in Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight? Here's every nation on earth - even the pouting Soviets - fixed on the comet of can-do US optimism streaking into the stars. Even the French loved us then."

Updated through 9/10.

"I didn't think astronauts were dopes, but I was surprised to see just how thoughtful these men are," writes Matt Singer at IFC News. "They talk about the difference between fear (which they don't have) and worry (which they do).... They explain what it feels like to fly inside a fireball. And they remind us just how courageous they were: back in its early days, this stuff was so incredibly dangerous men died simply conducting tests on the equipment."

"Many observers believe that in coming weeks it may trigger a badly needed bout of national pride in America," observe Robin McKie and Paul Harris in the... Observer.

"There wasn't really a film out there that looked at things from the astronauts' perspectives," director Sington tells Amy Kaufman in the Los Angeles Times. "To me, it was just an obvious thing that needed to be done. It was irresistible."

Earlier: "Sundance. In the Shadow of the Moon."

Updates, 9/5: Shadow "moved me to the extremes of nostalgia, regret and outright admiration as no other movie has moved me this year," writes Andrew Sarris in the New York Observer.

The doc "is entrancing - and often exhilarating - as it returns the staid nostalgia of Ron Howard's Apollo 13 to the level of mythology it deserves (Howard, ironically, helped distribute the film)," writes Cullen Gallagher in the L Magazine. "Above all, it is the space footage itself that is so remarkable and captures, with a Lumiere-like simplicity, the majesty of moving images."

"Astronauts make tough reviewers — they tend to prefer accuracy to drama." John Schwartz talks to three Apollo astronauts about the film - and to Sington about why Neil Armstrong is missing. Well, sort of. Via SXSW's News Reel.

Jürgen Fauth: "The general outline of the Space Race may be familiar from TV documentaries, The Right Stuff and Apollo 13, but Sington has a terrific asset: NASA only recently opened their vaults and he is the first filmmaker to make extensive use of never-seen-before footage. The digitally restored images of the launching rockets, the control center (painstakingly synced with audio recordings), and the surface of the moon are nothing short of breathtaking, especially when seen on a big screen."

Updates, 9/6: "As Sington's film demonstrates, the handful of men who flew to the moon in glorified aluminum cans, using jury-rigged late-60s computer technology that rarely worked as advertised, went there for reasons that can only seem noble and innocent - and entirely too distant - today," writes Andrew O'Hehir in Salon. "Halliburton didn't exist yet, so the whole project was actually run by the government, and not subcontracted at grossly inflated prices. There was nationalism involved, but not much jingoism, and the astronauts themselves quickly grasped that this was a human accomplishment, not merely an American one."

"Never have talking heads in extreme close up been more fascinating," notes Jennifer Merin in the New York Press.

Updates, 9/10: "In the Shadow of the Moon's both transcendently beautiful and impressively down-to-earth," writes Cinematical's James Rocchi from Toronto.

"When was the last time the wonders of technology received such wholehearted endorsement?" asks Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "If today's world is even more strife-torn than the world of 1969, when the Vietnam War was raging, one reason may be that the same technology that produced Apollo 11 has since come under a cloud."

"Even if you care so little about the moon that you wouldn't mind if it's made of green cheese, the romance of this endeavor will capture you entirely," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dwhudson at September 4, 2007 12:27 PM