'Apollo 11' - Movie Review

A new (2019) documentary about the Apollo 11 launch.

I tend to think of the Moon landing in grainy, low quality black-and-white, largely because that's how it was initially seen on tiny little 1960s TV screens, and that's how it's almost invariably represented even now. But a lot of film at and around the event was shot at far higher quality, and director Todd Douglas Miller edits together that and some previously unreleased 70mm(!) footage his research uncovered to assemble a recreation of that amazing moment of time.

Miller forgoes any modern narration in favour of ground staff, the astronauts, and possibly some contemporary narrators. The movie really brings home what a spectacular undertaking this was: how difficult, expensive, and dangerous it was. Coming as it does 50 years after the event, I think even those who lived through the event will be impressed by this well done retrospective.