Human beings landing on the moon and returning home to Earth would be impressive enough, but the fact that the US Space program managed to go from an “I-dare-you” pledge by John F. Kennedy to actually doing it within a decade is all the more astounding. Being one of the most monumental events in human history, many documentaries have already been made about the moon landings, but I think In the Shadow of the Moon is something special. It’s an extraordinary tale told by the extraordinary men who quite literally did the impossible.



Combining archival footage with new interview material, Shadow is the story of the moon landings told by the guys who actually went. There’s no superfluous narration, no dramatic re-enactments or anything like that, just the footage and the men, who make some surprising observations amongst the remembrances of living human history. Gene Cernan from the Apollo 15 mission tells of how he feels like he missed “his war”, Vietnam, because he was training to be an astronaut. Other retired astronauts reveal the less publicized dangers of the program, like how they had to write good bye letters in case they couldn’t come back or were otherwise stranded on the moon.



The movie does an amazing job of conveying that sense of wonder, a time when space missions were new and exciting, which, despite recent NASA tragedies, I think there’s still complacency for. Hearing these guys actually tell their stories, seemingly in an anecdotal fashion as opposed to some kind of Q&A, was great since the latter option can sometimes have an artificial feeling. It’s almost like an oral history of the early days of the space program, which can sometimes get philosophical as Dan Scott asks, “Why do people complain about the Earth, we are living in the Garden of Eden.”



Having said that, the film has one glaring omission: Neil Armstrong. I don’t know why and I don’t know how he wasn’t involved in the making of this film, but it really seems like a huge oversight on the part of the makers of this film. Also I found that Shadow got a little preachy at the end with a discourse on the importance of environmentalism and how this is the only Earth we’ve got… All good stuff mind you but I didn’t pay to watch the first ten minutes of An Inconvenient Truth over again.



Then there was thing that I found intriguing, but while at the same time kind of unnecessary. It comes from another Cernan quote where he says, “Truth needs no defense. Nobody can take those footsteps on the moon away from me.” Of course, he’s referencing those conspiracy theorists who say the moon landing never happened and while it’s interesting to hear the reaction of someone who has a personal stake in those laughable allegations, I wonder if they’re just giving the idiots who think so little to refute acknowledged history, more ammunition.



All-in-all though, what we have here is unique perspective of one of mankind’s greatest achievements, recorded for posterity and for the enjoyment and vicarious wish fulfillment of anyone who’s looked up in the sky and thought, “I’d like to land on that.”