Big Picture Big Sound

He shoots (for the moon)... he scores!

The new documentary "Apollo 11" by Todd Douglas Miller ("Dinosaur 13") delivers such a successful audio and visual experience that it transports viewers back in time to experience the momentous achievement of landing the first men on the moon as if present on those magnificent days.  But the film goes beyond the already familiar footage to deliver more than just another (albeit stunning) rocket launch sequence; instead, it yields an authentic and brilliant insider's view of Mission Control as well as the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

Let's be honest: we all know how this story unfolds.  This is one of the most important, and well known, events in all of human history.  In 1969 NASA delivered upon the late President Kennedy's wish of "achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."  In ten short years the United States went from ZERO space travel to this stunning accomplishment.

A quick check of the median age in the United States (38.1 as of 2017) means that at least half of us - yours truly included - were still years away from even being born when the moon landing happened. Until now, we've only been able to experience the event via lower quality archival footage, or through dramatic reenactments, such as 2018's biographical drama "First Man." I even remember watching the Space Shuttle launches on a small TV at my elementary school-interesting, but never thrilling.

Miller's team, working closely with production partners from the National Archives and NASA, have composed a tight and cohesive 93 minutes from more than 11,000 hours of audio recordings and a vast collection of film footage, including a trove of never-before seen 65mm large-format film footage.  I cannot adequately express the degree of technical achievement on display here. This is a crowning execution of a "found footage" concept - except that the visual and the audio were found separately, not in order, and not particularly organized.  The production process also yielded a significant by-product: an enormous collection of archival-quality, high-resolution Apollo 11 footage.  And all of this because they were curious to learn more about the backstory of a moon rock from the later Apollo 17 mission.

The onscreen results are vivid and impressive. The sights and sounds of the crawler carrying the Saturn V rocket to the launch pad are detailed and powerful. Neil Armstrong's son Rick, present at both the original Apollo 11 launch and the February 26th DC press screening, commented that the documentary's depiction of a Saturn V launch is the closest thing yet to his experience 50 years ago.  Several others in the audience voiced their agreement. Many space films have produced exciting rocket launch scenes driven by special effects - I particularly enjoyed Ron Howards "Apollo 13" in that respect.  But "Apollo 11" does all of that using the genuine article.  This is no CGI creation.

The found footage also grants new and unprecedented access to so many corners of the mission that the film can eschew traditional framing devices in favor of in-scene cues. A scene featuring news broadcasts at Mission Control provides a temporal grounding and reminds us of the other things happening in the world at that time - Vietnam, Chappaquiddick - in a subtle manner.  Another scene featuring the price of a cup of coffee at the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center generated an audible laugh from the audience, as did a number of the small lines of banter between the astronaut crew and their support teams back on Earth. The great national narrator of the era, Walter Cronkite, is present in just the right doses, but not as a typical talking head. All of this combines to create an intimacy with the viewer: you are right there, experiencing those moments alongside the staff in Houston.

The score from the film is interesting, but not intrusive. I struggled to place its familiar-but-not quality at first; it was later revealed that the composer sought to use period-specific instruments, including a vintage MOOG synthesizer. It is just out of this world enough, without being silly.

I must comment on the on-screen diagrams depicting the spaceflight: the images they use are simple and effective.  But I am left to wonder if they were drawn from authentic Apollo mission imagery, or if Miller's team decided to substitute the image stylings of a certain vintage arcade game.  In either case, I smiled each time they were on screen.

I have two small quibbles with "Apollo 11." One is that the film grain takes on a strange, blobby quality in a few scenes. I suspect this may be an unavoidable by-product of the digitization process.  It was very isolated, but it caught my eye.  The other is that some of the space-to-ground audio is difficult to discern.  But I'm tempted to give it a pass in the name of authenticity. After all, we're talking about radio transmissions from 160,000 miles away, recorded on 50-year-old analog equipment.  This issue too was rare, but I longed for an occasional subtitle to help me out as I was engaged and didn't want to miss a single detail.

The fact that some internet hackles were raised over whether or not "First Man" displayed adequate levels of patriotism led me to think about how "Apollo 11" treats this topic. Ultimately, I appreciated the humility on display in the historical footage as our astronauts acknowledged both nation and mankind at large. On the issue of patriotism this film finds a balance, displaying neither chest-thumping nationalistic fanaticism nor shrinking from a proper level of pride in our nation's achievement. I came away with admiration for the great deeds carried out through the dedication and collaboration of so many.

Normally I raise a skeptical eyebrow at the prospect of IMAX and its attendant price bump. But in this case, IMAX is absolutely worth it. I encourage you to spend the time to seek out a proper IMAX theater - with laser projection and 12-channel sound - and you will be rewarded for your effort.

If you were alive when we first landed on the moon, see "Apollo 11" and relive the experience. If you enjoy well-crafted historical documentaries, see "Apollo 11" and learn something new. If you have even a passing interest in space exploration, see "Apollo 11." If you are a fan of NASA, well, I'm just going to assume that you already have tickets.