The
Apollo 11 NASA spaceflight mission
which landed astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the
Moon on July 20th, 1969, remains the moment the world heard the
words ‘that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ and the
course of human history was changed forever.
Decades later, the monumental achievement in science and innovation
continues to inspire dramatizations and documentaries chronicling the legendary
event. Just last year, even, the film
world saw Damien Chazelle’s big budget First
Man with Ryan Gosling portraying Neil Armstrong embarking on the historic
mission.
For
years, the definitive cinematic treatment of the Apollo 11 mission was Al Reinert’s 1989 documentary film For All Mankind which for many will
always be the most comprehensive visual portrait of the mission. That is until recently when filmmaker Todd
Douglas Miller presented his 2019 IMAX documentary Apollo 11 which contained previously unseen 70mm footage of the mission
as well as newly discovered archival 35mm and 16mm film. Produced by CNN Films and playing for one
week only, the aptly named Apollo 11 presents
the legendary accomplishment in space exploration as you’ve never seen or heard
it before! To call the unearthed footage
awe inspiring is putting it mildly!
Framed
at the native 65mm ratio of 2.20:1 with a number of scenes with the camera
moving about stabilized for a clearer perspective, the film was shot using
Todd-AO cameras which were previously developed for big screen musicals such as
Oklahoma! and Around the World in 80 Days.
Whether or not the footage shot on location with the high-resolution
film cameras was intended to be part of a Cinerama documentary film ala Windjammer or Cinerama Holiday remains to be seen. That said, the previously locked away
material has been excavated and restored to pristine condition, providing
modern filmgoers and historians a glimpse back into the past that has never
been clearer or more luminous to the naked eye than it has now.
After
garnering the footage from the National Archives and Records Administration in
conjunction with NASA, a massive effort to restore the footage went
underway. Using special climate-controlled
vans to safely transport the footage to the laboratories to begin the transfer
process, the makers then waded through over 11,000 hours of audio records and almost
as many hours of televised videotape. The effort is clearly painstaking but not in
vain, as the end result truly is breathtaking even if some of it is familiar to
the viewer.
Augmenting
the ‘you are there’ experience the footage in IMAX puts you in is a wildly
innovative sound design that puts you the listener on Merritt Island, Florida
and makes you feel as though you’re witnessing the launch in real time. In an unusual strive for authenticity, the
film’s electronic score by Matt Morton utilized instruments and technology that
would have only been available to musicians at the time of the mission. While the effort may go unnoticed among most
listeners, that the makers went the extra mile for that little attention to
detail is remarkable on its own right.
Much
like the recently released WWI documentary They
Shall Not Grow Old, the documentary film presents a crystal-clear window
into the past using modern technology and preexisting archival materials to
paint a picture people didn’t think possible.
While presenting many details and minutiae, the central aim of both
documentaries is to create an experience for the viewer to place them within
the shoes of the subjects onscreen. You
don’t simply watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin embark on the barrier
breaking spaceflight, you’re right there with them every step of the way. A testament to the capabilities of modern
film preservation processes and dedicated to the mission that propelled mankind
into the cosmos, Apollo 11 is an
indelible cinematic journey for viewers young and old and is among the very
best things currently playing in movie theaters.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki