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When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions

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When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions

Old 06-23-08, 12:22 PM
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Originally Posted by Bill Needle

I have 5 of the Spacecraft Films sets. I love them. I only wish they had been able to include the live television broadcasts as well. Watching Cronkite tear up on that warm July evening when we heard the words "The Eagle has landed" is etched in my memory (despite the fact that I later grew to despise the man). The broadcasts would add significantly to the nostalgia factor and much better convey the immensity of what was being attempted for the time.
I'm going to start watching that Apollo 11 set today, and imagine I will have the same opinion. I watched the "Failure is Not an Option" doc from the Race to the Moon DVD set yesterday and thought that was a very good. The second disc in that set was a huge let down though.
Old 06-23-08, 12:31 PM
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I've only watched a few minutes of these (I'm Tivo-ing them), but so far they look pretty good. And yes, it's great to see Neil Armstrong involved.

I also enjoyed In The Shadow Of The Moon, and From The Earth To The Moon, but for my money the best one is For All Mankind, available in a great Criterion Collection DVD.
Old 06-23-08, 12:46 PM
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Originally Posted by berserker37
I've only watched a few minutes of these (I'm Tivo-ing them), but so far they look pretty good. And yes, it's great to see Neil Armstrong involved.

I also enjoyed In The Shadow Of The Moon, and From The Earth To The Moon, but for my money the best one is For All Mankind, available in a great Criterion Collection DVD.
Yup, I've wanted to check out For All Mankind for a few years now. Does it ever come on cable TV? And FTETTM is the Tom Hanks-production, correct? I reckon it must be a pretty accurate portrayal of the events.
Old 06-23-08, 12:52 PM
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Originally Posted by lawyer goodwill
Yup, I've wanted to check out For All Mankind for a few years now. Does it ever come on cable TV? And FTETTM is the Tom Hanks-production, correct? I reckon it must be a pretty accurate portrayal of the events.
I've never heard of it playing on TV. And I realize that, as a Criterion disc, it still goes for around $30, which can be a tough sell for a blind buy, single disc, 79 minute movie. But I would highly recommend it as a purchase, or at least a Netflix rental, for anyone who enjoys the NASA/space/moon type stuff. And be sure to watch it with the commentary by directory Al Reinert and astronaut (and last man on the moon) Gene Cernan.

Here's the Netflix description:
Director-journalist Al Reinert sifted through 6 million feet of film and 80 hours of interviews with astronauts to deliver a dazzling, Oscar-nominated documentary chronicling the American space program and its rush to put a man on the moon. With Brian Eno's atmospheric score, the film uncovers vibrant, never-before-seen footage of the space race, which ended in 1969 when Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's challenge to NASA.


I'm amazed to see several 2 and 3 star reviews at Netflix for this film. If you go into it expecting a bunch of facts, and a play-by-play of the missions, then I guess you might be disappointed. But that was never the intention of the film; rather, it was to share the experience of the Apollo astronauts, as humans embarking on an amazing journey "for all mankind".

(And I always get a chuckle on the commentary track when Reinert mentions that, as a filmmaker, it kills him to know that they went all the way to the moon, the most remote location ever visited by a film crew, and brought back UNEXPOSED film!)


Update: Curious about a possible HD release of For All Mankind, I did a little searching and found this:

Dear Criterion Collection Newsletter subscriber,

We’ve got some exciting news for this fall, and we wanted you to hear it first.

Our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We’ve picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we’ll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.

Here’s what’s in the pipeline:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear


OK, sorry about detouring this thread, I'll shut up now, I swear!

Last edited by berserker37; 06-23-08 at 01:38 PM.
Old 06-24-08, 07:07 AM
  #30  
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Well, I ended up staying up past 4am watching my DVRed recording of the whole series. Absolutely fantastic! I don't have Discovery HD, so I had to watch in crappy SD over cable, so needless to say, I can't wait for an eventual Blu-ray release of this.

You can tell that Armstrong really doesn't like being in front of the camera (ironic, since he became one of the most famous people in the history of the world), as it seemed like he was reading some pre-scripted comments as compared to the off the cuff comments from the other astronauts. Still, great to see him on TV.

As far as the US manned space program goes, I'm sad to see the end of the Shuttle coming soon, but hopefully we'll see some exciting things come out of the new Orion program... not holding my breath for that though, I can't really see Congress giving NASA the funding they really need to do the things they want to more quickly. I find it interesting how it took NASA only around 10 years to go from not knowing how to fly in space at all, to landing on the moon, and if you look at the development cycle for the new Orion program, it's nearly as long, just to get the thing off the ground!!
Old 06-24-08, 03:09 PM
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Originally Posted by bdshort
I find it interesting how it took NASA only around 10 years to go from not knowing how to fly in space at all, to landing on the moon, and if you look at the development cycle for the new Orion program, it's nearly as long, just to get the thing off the ground!!
Interesting = Sad. The fact that we are going to have to rely on the russians for our manned spaceflight for at least 5 years is both disturbing & pathetic. (especially given the re-entry problems of the soyuz craft lately)
Old 06-24-08, 04:57 PM
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I'm clearly of the opinion that present day NASA is a shell of it's former self. That said I've never really looked into the Orion program. Having read a little about that I think I have to downgrade my opinion of present day NASA. Looks like for the most part they're going with 60's era technology and integrating "computers"? They're going to have to launch 2 separate times, one for crew and one for vehicles, to get to the moon? And they're going back to parachutes for landing?
Old 07-04-08, 08:30 AM
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blew my mind, with the restored archive footage it was high definition time travel. anyone questioning the reason for hdtv needs to watch this series! the sheer amount and quality of the footage was impressive.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25011532/
When We Left Earth' series is spectacular
Discovery Channel documentary is a tribute to U.S. space exploration

on a sad note obama wants to cut nasa funding
Old 07-04-08, 02:12 PM
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Originally Posted by Timber
And they're going back to parachutes for landing?
It's far, far more efficient that a shuttle-type landing, and less expensive to boot. You don't need the bulk, weight and complexity added by wings, a rudder, landing gear and all the hydraulic systems required to operate them.

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