Rated: PG
Starring: Edwin E. Aldrin Jr, Alan Bean (II), James Lovell, Edgar Mitchell, David R. Scott
Directed by: David Sington

• Official Site

Maybe. A very powerful word, maybe. It means possibly. It hints potential to overcome obstacles. It says: Where the impossible once lived, possible now resides. Where possible once dwelled, probable is now resident.

In The Shadow of the Moon, takes the audience back to a portion of United States history that marked a space age renaissance. It was a moment where America drag raced against the Russians to reach space in nothing more than glorified garbage cans.

That was until President John F. Kennedy offered up a challenge to some gentlemen over at NASA: Travel to the moon before the end of the decade. It was 1961. Little did anyone know that eight years later President Kennedy's dream would come to fruition.

This documentary gracefully sauntered as the audience was treated to various interviews with the very men who took the ride of a lifetime. Astronauts such as, Jim Lovell, famous commander during the infamous Apollo 13 fiasco, and credited for helping to bring his crew safely back to Earth; Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins, two of the three Apollo 11 crew members who, along with Neil "Budd" Armstrong, completed the first successful mission to the moon.

Their detailed accounts of the fight and plight, heroics, and unyielding drive, courage, dedication, and fortitude kept viewers captivated and emotionally moved for the movie's duration of 100 minutes.

Listening to them reminisce made one feel as though they were listening to legendary tales too incredible to be true...but they were. Some stories were tragic, like Apollo 1's astronauts Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White who perished during a fire that occurred inside their spacecraft, while performing a test launch.

Some stories were heartwarming, mesmerizing, and emotional, like the story about how Apollo 8's mission captured the view of the Earth rising over the moon's horizon.

Of course there were also the humorous stories, such as Jim Lovell's recollection of how one woman tried to sue NASA for allowing the Apollo 8's crew members to read from the old testament, as they watched the Earth come into view, during their orbiting of the moon.

The audience experienced a connection to these gentlemen of the right stuff. At times it was possible to feel as if they were sitting in the theatre. Their words make you feel as though you are sitting in the rockets right along side them, waiting to be launched into the unknown. The vivid descriptions of re-entry caused tickles of chills to run along my neck.

Presenter Ron Howard, and director, David Sington, forever captured such indelible memories so precious that, attempting to place a price on them would be futile. These were stories of events that happened over 40 years ago, and though they were events of days long gone by, these brave men, through their recollections, repeated their journey, and all of us in the theatre rode with them.

The most extraordinary thing about the movie was the astronauts' discussions of how their adventures affected them. For example, when Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins returned from their mission to the moon, they said the world tour proved even more incredible.

People from all over the world would declare to them, "We did it!" It was not, "You guys did it", or "You Americans did it," but "We" as in all humans collectively, united as one race. Mike Collins described the moment to be "ephemeral," but as short-lived as it was, it was within this precious little bit of time that we were working together to defeat an enemy that was neither communist nor Russian, but time and space itself.

It was within that glorious small measure of time that the humans of this planet were capable of learning how to work harmoniously, to bounce back from tragedy and failure, swerve around obstacles, and acknowledge the power and potential of the word maybe.

These journeys into space, and to the moon, allowed the men involved to put aside "terrestrial squabbles" and place importance on what was truly significant in life. Some became born again Christians, while others opted a more neutral stance, merely acknowledging some supreme being, whose existence extended beyond the structures and teachings of organized religions.

Regardless of how these men returned to Earth, one thing was certain, when they did return, they would not be the same men that had, only days before, sat on a launch pad, waiting to take the ride of their life.

It has been over three decades since NASA has sent anyone to the moon. Is there a chance that they will send someone again, sometime in our lifetime? We can only hope. Until then, one thing is for sure, the answer is definitely maybe.

---

Comments

Add New Search RSS

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."