Apollo 11

Starring: Neil Armstrong (archive footage), Buzz Aldrin (archive footage), Michael Collins (archive footage)
Directed by: Todd Douglas Miller
Rating: G
Genre: Documentary
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: This documentary shows never-before-seen footage of the Apollo 11 journey to send three Americans to the moon.

Review:

Tim: I have to admit to being a bit befuddled by this movie (in a good way). The Apollo 11 moon landing is one of the greatest achievements in human history. I assumed I knew much of what happened during that launch and the journey to the moon and back. So, I was pretty shocked when I learned that this movie had so much footage that had never really been seen before. It existed in the NASA archives, but hadn't been included in other documentaries. That blows my mind, that in 2019, we could see so much of this footage for the first time. That's amazing and automatically a reason to see this film.

I thought the approach Todd Douglas Miller took was surprising and effective. It really felt like the approach was to let the footage speak for itself. There was no voiceover or narration for the movie. There weren't any interviews with people looking into the camera or just off-camera at an interviewer. Miller's approach was just to show the footage with minimal on-screen text to help us understand what we were seeing. It's not an approach I could recall seeing before in a documentary (although to be fair, my documentary experience is embarrassingly thin). The interesting thing is that it works. Miller weaves together this archive footage in a way that tells the story of the Apollo 11 launch in a way that makes sense. The movie doesn't need narrated explanations or any kind of analysis. That's been done before. This documentary just presents the footage and allows us an unprecedented look into one of the most historically important events of all time. I would not have thought the movie would be as compelling as it was with this approach. I was interested and intrigued the entire time. In many ways, this bold move made the movie. The loudest voice isn't a commentator, but the footage itself is given the room to speak. I truly appreciated this.

The footage itself is oftentimes breathtaking. There were so many moments when I wondered, "Who took this footage?" Some of it seemed mundane, but it told the larger story of what people were doing at the time of the launch. I shook my head in disbelief both at the footage of quiet moments, as well as some of the more stunning moments we saw depicted here. There was footage of the various stages of the launch and eventual landing on the moon that I'd never seen before. It was beautiful- the combination of the visual footage with the incredible audio as well. It tells the story of Apollo 11 in a way that's never really been done before. It treats the event not as some long-ago historical event, but as something unfolding before your very eyes. It gives the viewers a never-before-seen perspective on this. There's an element of genius in this approach.

Now, as much as I'm a glowing fan of this film, I do believe the film stops short of greatness. While it offers us sights and views never before seen, any intelligent, well-informed person is quite familiar with the Apollo 11 victory. We might get a more nuanced, more well-rounded view of it, but the basic facts have remained unchanged. This movie didn't make me think differently about it, as it more filled in some gaps. I was impressed with the footage, but I wasn't quite blown away by what I saw. That accounts for the small difference between this being a "great" movie and "just" being a thoroughly effective, good movie.

I don't want to take anything away from Apollo 11, because this is an absolute success of a film. It was informative and entertaining and exceptionally well made. I have to believe this will be a major contender for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards this year and it won't surprise me in the least if it comes away with the win. It's that good.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Apollo 13, First Man, The Right Stuff