Review of For All Mankind (1989) by Brandon S — 11 Nov 2009

Constructed out of film footage shot from 1968 to 1972, in the heyday of the Apollo program, with audio commentary by the astronauts who were in missions 8 to 17 and either flew around the Moon or actually set foot on it, "For All Mankind" (a title borrowed from a Kennedy speech) portrays the whole Apollo program as one single composite flight, and is therefore structured not chronologically, as one might expect, but according to the various stages of the journey, from preparation to ocean plop.

Puzzled as I was by this unusual narrative order (which I only figured out after the film was over), and a bit left behind by some of the astronauts' heavy accents, I found this very informal documentary less engrossing than, say, "In the Shadow of the Moon". It is not about context and history, or even science and technology, but about the human experience of going to the Moon, and especially the moments when nothing significant is happening, and the astronauts are just goofing around on the surface, listening to country music or having fun with food and zero gravity.

The two things that fascinated me about this documentary, apart from the stark beauty of our satellite and the surprisingly good definition of the later films, were how often religious language and references popped up in the astronauts' commentaries, and how quickly these outlanders began to feel at home on the Moon, and form an attachment to this inhospitable, black and white dustbowl.