Customer Reviews

Moon Shot: The Inside Story of the Apollo Project (1994) [VHS]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Using Deke Slayton's homespun (and salty!) language filtered through the earthy voice of Barry Corbin, Moon Shot is the definative history of the NASA Space program.

This documentary uses an ocean of archival footage and stunningly accessible, honest, humourous and illuminative first person narratives of all the key players to tell the complete story from Mercury to Skylab and all the journeys in between. As great as Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff is, Moon Shot is even more complete.

Clocking in at over 3 hours in running time, Moon Shot flies by in a second as it is filled with fascinating insights and visions of the brave men (and the women who supported them) who took us into the final frontier.

The moon landing is one of man's greatest achievements and this inspirational documentary caputures history in a manner befitting a classic epic film. Moon shot is a must see and must own document which stands up beautifully to the many, many times I have viewed and reviewed it.

Turner Entertainment has given us two of the best historical gifts ever captured on film: "Gettysburg" and "Moon Shot". I got to see "Moon Shot" on tv and while in DC at the Air & Space Museum saw it for sale and bought it without hesitation.

Growing up, my heroes were all astronauts and they're all in this film which covers the US space program from NASA's birth in 1958 through the Apollo flights. I show portions of this great film to my aerospace history class to show my students what it was like back then since most of them were born after the Space Shuttle program began. I can't wait for my daughter to get a little older so I can let her watch it.

To suplement the film, I highly recommend the book of the same title by Shepard and Slayton. If you still want more, "Deke!" by Slayton, "John Glenn: A Memoir" by Glenn are both great as well. If you are really a space nut, seek out "We Seven" by the original Mercury astronauts and "Footprints" by the Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon.

Moonshot is the best NASA documentary ever and gives a thorough,and personal,history of 1960s spaceflight from Mercury to Gemini to the Apollo Moon landings.It is told by the astronauts themselves and features unique footage of President Kennedy visiting the base.It also tells some stories that I had not seen before,such as Coopers emergency landing when systems shut down in his Mercury capsule.The Moonshot documentary gives us our moneys worth by going for 3 hours and 12 minutes of very interesting NASA history.How about a DVD version? This superb documentary deserves one.

When i first saw apollo 13, I was hooked. I decided to get everything I could on the space program concerning those flights. I never expected to become so engulfed in this video but it seemed to have more information about what happened during the missions than anything else. I love all of the interviews (especially Pete Conrad). I also thought it was cool when they intergrated the old N.A.S.A. and soviet launch footage. My only wish for this video would have been a face to face interview with Deke Slayton. If you love stuff about the space program or documentaries period, get this one. You might surprise yourself and love it.

Based on the book, MOONSHOT (ISBN: 1878685546), by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton (two members of the "Mercury Seven"), this insightful and educating documentary originally aired on TBS (as a mini-series) in 1995. Covering NASA's early manned space programs from Mercury through Apollo, this series provides a plethora of archived video footage, recent interviews and colorful commentary by Barry Corbin (the obnoxious, redneck general in the movie, WAR GAMES). Aside from Spacecraft Films' digitally remastered archived footage on DVD, this series provides the most comprehensive, albeit compact, overview of how the American space program began and progressed throughout the height of the Cold War.

Unfortunately, this series is not currently available on DVD.

This is one of the better programs I have seen on TV, and it is a great overview of the training and flights of U.S. astronauts up through the Moon landings. It includes stunning film of astronauts in space, and the very haunting story of the 3 Apollo men who were killed in 1967. There also are some interesting clips of Soviet cosmonauts. The narration and the statements by former astronauts and other NASA employees are excellent, including a lot of common sense and a good sense of humor.

It is good to see the astronauts who put their lives on the line get a chance to speak for themselves in "Moon Shot." They describe many dramatic incidents which were little known at the time. Their opinions of the silliness of bureaucrats and loony academics are worth the price of the video alone.

One of the most heartening parts of the video is the message given by the Apollo 8 astronauts back to Earth as they were orbiting the Moon in 1968, while, at the same time the world was undergoing much turmoil.

Overall, it is a very moving story about the heroism and dedication of the astronauts and others in the race to the moon.

Moon Shot is educational as well as entertaining. The movie is an excellent and necessary supplement to anyone interested in space travel and astronomy, and it serves as a good introduction to space/astronomy newcomers. Many are unaware that the Mercury and Gemini programs were essential to ensure man's trip to the moon and "safe return to Earth" during the Apollo program. WELL DONE!

Just to reiterate what others have said. Where's the DVD? I keep coming here time to time looking for it to finally be available on DVD. You cannot even find this program airing on TNT, even at 3:00 in the morning. Many many folks out there do not know what they are missing since it's virtually unavailable. You may say that you could find a VHS copy somewhere, but someone who has not heard about this great program wouldn't know to even look for it.

This program was long enough to cover a lot of things, yet short enough that it leaves you wanting more.

This is probably the most lively and interesting story about the US space program made.This show is narrated by Barry Corbin (who played fictional astronaut Maurice Minnifield on Northern Exposure) in the person of Deke Slayton,the most forgotton of the Mercury Seven,America's first group of astronauts.Set against the glory days of the space program,the dialog is based on Slayton's book and is rife with his colorful dialog,describing the events from a more human and emotional perspective rather then the normal cold war era space story,full of wonder and worship.This story has alot of drama,human insight into a then unknown and often scarry possibility of space travel told by a real fly boy.And Slayton often steps out front with his wit and charm.Also instead of gathering historians and experts the story is assisted with the help of surviving Mercury astronauts and engineers.
The most notable section (and the most frightening) is Corbin's dramatic reading of Slayton's graphic description of the events leading up to the Apollo 1 dissaster in 1967 when one his his fellow Mercury seven was killed in a flash fire resulting from poor hardware and an overly anxious NASA's need to meet JFK's goal of a man on the moon by 1970.And in the end,after years of suffering from a heart fribulation that cost him much of his astronaut career Sleyton succombs to his affliction before the memoirs were completed.But considering the touching statement made by Slayton beforehand it's clear he still felt like 'one of the luckiest men on the face of the Earth' until his final days.For those who want to know the inner mental workings of an astronaut who need go no further.

The many behind-the-scenes videos made this a wonderful video. The current interviews with surviving astronauts was a good touch. I was saddened that Deke Slayton did not live to this project's completion.

The video was much better than the book. For text, I recommend FLIGHT by Kraft or DEKE by Slayton.