Apollo 11

Released 2019. Director: Todd Douglas Miller

WHO EVER SAID A DOCUMENTARY MADE OF archival footage and audio recordings can’t be suspenseful should sit and feel their fists clench watching Apollo 11. There’s much we already know about the 1969 Moon landing. Yet there’s so much previously unseen material cut together expertly here into a – pardon the pun – soaring thriller.

Start with a scene of jaw-dropping proportions. A gigantic launchpad on caterpillar wheels taller than a truck trundles slowly down the road. On the launchpad is a support tower securing a rocket hundreds of feet high positioned upright ready for lift-off. Let me repeat that: the rocket, on the launchpad, on wheels, just moving down the road. It’s a sight few have seen – or even imagined, I’d say.

Miles and miles of cars and crowds swamp the area, a veritable sea of people gathered to witness this historic moment, surely one of the most watched events in human history, with countless also watching on live TV around the globe. The three astronauts – Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin – carry the hope of all humankind to travel furthest than anyone has ever done.

On 16th July 1969 they went off in a thunderous billow of fire and smoke to become the first men to leave this planet and set foot on another celestial body four days later. Little is mentioned of the disastrous and fatal failures in the past leading to this moment. The risks and dangers, though unspoken, were very real and this mission too, could possibly end with loss of lives at any second.

This documentary doesn’t need dialogue or story. The drama is inherent in the intercutting scenes between launch control at Cape Canaveral in Florida, mission control in Houston and the Apollo 11 spacecraft. The marathon mission is managed by an army of personnel at NASA and many names are displayed onscreen through the long days and nights, acknowledging the hundreds of men and women on the ground coordinating every move on Earth and in space. The computers are ancient by today’s standards but the process itself is no less thrilling to watch. The minutes preceding landing is a tense sequence, as the fuel gauge runs perilously low while the module makes its cautious descent in a race against time. By the time the Eagle touches down on the Sea of Tranquillity, there’s only 16 seconds of fuel left in the tank. Talk about cutting it close. Even though we all know they are going to make a safe landing, the sequence is still suspenseful after five decades. A gripping watch for us audience, Armstrong’s heart rate at the time beats at 156, a truly heart-pounding experience.

The first views of the lunar surface of a desolate and eerie landscape are soon enlivened by the astronauts hopping in low gravity. The scene has a whimsical quality, as though we’re watching children playing in a sandbox. The one-second delay in transmission also gives it a surreal, stop-motion quality. Then comes the image of the Earth floating in dark space, a shimmering white and blue marble, the first sight of our collective home from a brand-new vantage point, truly remarkable and breathtaking to witness in motion. It’s worth remembering everything we see is real, not special effects.

Apollo 11 is a celebration of human endeavours, the spirit of exploration and the achievement of science. A historical document that’s unparalleled in its power to stir and inspire. As the astronauts successfully carry out a precision rendezvous between the lunar module and the command module, they head home, eventually punching a fiery trail through the Earth’s atmosphere for a riveting, literally white-hot descent and splashdown, giving us a second climax like the final act in a Shakespearean drama. I want to say fasten your seatbelt for this ride but you’d probably be on the edge of your seat.

This is not your standard documentary. It has no interviews or voiceovers. We hear actual communications and audio recordings as scientists, supervisors and technicians speak into their headsets. We see continuous sequences of events in split screen, a simultaneous progression of action from multiple locations. Todd Douglas Miller has directed and edited his movie not as a history lesson but a visceral experience, with the sight and sound (a pulse-pounding score by Matt Morton) to carry us through an incredible journey.

The events of Apollo 11 happened over half a century ago but its power remains in this euphoric recall. It’s a much-needed encouragement for a new generation and inspiration amidst the doom and gloom of our present time.

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