Customer Reviews

National Geographic's For All Mankind [VHS]

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're looking for history, skip this dvd. However, if you're looking for a film that will let you experience what it's really like to fly into space and be on the moon, then what are you waiting for? This dvd is for you. I watched FOR ALL MANKIND late at night, the only light in the room coming from the images on my TV screen. I was spellbound. The footage of the Earth from space in this film is so clear and pristine that you feel as if you're actually there. It's really awesome. I didn't mind, as some people did, that the editor mixed footage from different missions and made it seem like it was all from a single mission. I also didn't care that the astronaut speaking on the soundtrack wasn't always the one you saw on the screen. All the voices you hear, just like all the images you see, are the real deal here; it's just that sometimes you hear one astronaut talking while watching footage of other astronauts from a completely different mission. Viewers who expect and demand a chronological history of the missions will be disappointed. This film does not offer that. Watch this film for the immediacy of the experience, which is sublime. Regardless of the editing, all the footage here is authentic. If there's one complaint I have about this edition, it's the extras, which are pretty skimpy. Seeing as how there's miles and miles of footage available, I would've liked to have seen more, especially extra footage of the earth from space and of the lunar surface. What there is of it in the film is so beautiful that you just want to see more of it. I want to stress that this is not your typical PBS/NOVA or HISTORY/DISCOVERY channel documentary. You WILL learn a lot by watching FOR ALL MANKIND, it just won't be about facts and figures. You learn something much more important because it conveys, as immediately and authentically as any film possibly can, the experience of being the first human being to look at the earth from space and to land and walk on the moon. If you're truly open to it and don't mind some creative (and I would say superb and seamless) editing, FOR ALL MANKIND offers an unforgettable viewing experience. It's a wonderful little film that is worth getting and watching over and over again.

As a serious student of the Apollo program, this is my favorite documentary of the program, despite its contextual fabrications and errors. The conceit is to represent a voyage to the lunar surface and back as a composite drawn from footage taken from all Apollo (and even some Gemini!) missions. As such it is in some sense a fictionalized account to begin with, thus one must look beyond this film as a simple and literal documentary, if you are willing to accept its premise. To me it succeeds at a psychological and emotional level as the film that best captures the spirit of the Apollo program, and even better, what it must have been like to have actually gone to the moon.

The footage is fantastic and rarely seen, even in real documentaries about Apollo. The pace at many points slows, and you are invited to dwell on the scenes, and perhaps even picture yourself there with the astronauts. A particular treat is that the movie is heavy on footage from the final mission involving the lunar rover, where the real exploration took place. These missions are often woefully represented, but here you get a sense of what it must have been like to have diven miles from the LM, exploring the lunar surface in complete solitude; or in other parts of the movie to have orbited alone in the CSM. Other treats are candid footage of the controllers in Houston, as well as dramatic usage of JFK's speach on Apollo given at Rice university in 1962. I will admit that the film doesn't state the true context of any of its footage, and a good portion of my enjoyment is being able to sort this out for myself; however, more than anything this program reminds me of what it was like to grow up and go to the moon with Apollo.

Science fiction movies and computer digital effects are great, but they don't compare to seeing actual footage shot in space, such as the case for this documentary. The scenes are spell-binding as ships manuever in the cold blackness of space, eventually landing on the surface of the Moon. The feature follows the sequence of an Apollo mission from the astronauts' dressing rooms, through the launch of the mighty Saturn V rocket and traveling through space, climaxing with views on the Moon's surface. Scenes are inter-mixed with footage from different Apollo missions, but it's not that displeasing and shows particular highlights such as Man's first step on the Moon, to later missions when astronauts had a lunar vehicle for traveling on the barren landscape. Brian Eno's music is perfect for this feature; if you could hear music out there - this would be it. Listening to the astronauts as they narrate this feature is nice and makes you feel even closer to them as you watch them progress through their missions. What's great is that it is all real footage, there are no actors and no FX, you get to see how it really happened.

Without a doubt the best effort by a documentary/film maker tocapture the real essence of the thoughts & feelings of the men ofthe Apollo missions.

The documentary is presented composite style, with all missions and recollections presented as one - and the stunning lunarscapes from Apollos 16 and 17 are intertwined with Ed White's Gemini spacewalk, the Apollo 11 landing and Dave Scott's hammer and feather experiment on Apollo 15.

The music by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois enhances the film further and the soundtrack for this film is also worth the purchase.

"We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard." Kennedy's famous speech opens up this movie and sets the mood for what is to follow: wonder. As noted in other reviews, "For All Mankind" is not a detailed, factual account of the Apollo program. Rather, it is an impressionist painting captured on film. Brief glimpses of footage and voiceovers flow together to create an atmosphere of wonder and awe. The feeling that the astronauts had when they took their historic flight.

This film gives a tourist's eye view of a trip to the moon. One astronaut comments that, when riding up the elevator to the launch pad, he realized just how complicated the ship was and how little he knew about what made it go up. These men were not scientists, they were adventurers. They had fun in space, and had a difficult time paying attention to their duties while in weightlessness. There was a connection made as you hear their jokes, and listen to their insights. It was really nice to see the humanity behind the names. Through their home movies, I feel like I went along.

Additional note: The DVD itself is excellent, with relevant, interesting features. Hats off again to the Criterion Collection.

I wouldn't recommend this DVD if you're someone who just wants to learn the basics about the Apollo space program. If you don't already know something about the Apollo missions, you'll probably just find the format of this movie to be confusing. They've taken video footage from eleven different Apollo missions, plus Apollo-Soyuz footage, plus even some Gemini footage, and pieced it all together into one grand hypothetical mission to the moon. It's a nice idea, if you like that sort of thing. But, if you don't already know Apollo, you'll just be wondering why the astronauts on-board this "one" mission are different in every scene, and wondering what's going on with all of the strange audio clips they've pieced together.

But, if you're an Apollo enthusiast, yup, you simply must buy this DVD. The fantastic footage alone makes this video worthwhile. There's some stuff here that you'll find in the standard NASA videos. But, there's also a lot of hard-to-find stuff that they dug out of the NASA archives. And, yes, it's all authentic NASA footage, no computer generated stuff (though they did use computer technology to clean up some of the scenes here and there).

The primary audio track is put together in the same spirit as the video, clips pieced together from many missions. Some audio clips are from the actual missions. Other audio clips come from interviews with the astronauts. And, of course, there's a director commentary track with guest speaker Gene Cernan. (I always find it interesting to listen to commentary by the actual astronauts who walked on the moon.)

They've even thrown in some bonus material of Alan Bean's paintings, as well as Alan Bean's comments about the inspiration to the paintings, and some of his thoughts about flying to and walking on the moon.

I give this one 5 stars because it's just plain amazing to watch actual moonshot footage, especially when they throw in so much rare and spectacular material.

I don't want to repeat the positive comments of others with which I agree, and couldn't state any better, so here are a few more things about this movie and disc which make it a worthy thing to own.

One of the most memorable things about the Apollo astronauts that you learn from this presentation is that when they weren't fully occupied with their tasks, which was rarely, they felt like playing, a lot like kids, in the zero and low-g environments. I found this really cool, coming from serious men committed to doing something very difficult and dangerous. The other unexpected common experience was that even the most red-blooded military-raised task-oriented Astronauts with their rustic accents had profoundly spiritual experiences during the missions, which changed them in ways that they're grateful for. The viewer shares these alternately childlike and deep feelings of discovery and exploration, so what's ostensibly an interesting documentary also becomes much more of an experience. You have the sense that this wasn't intended, necessarily, by the director at the outset, so it comes across very sincerely, not at all saccherine. As a film nut, I regard "For All Mankind" as a masterpiece of editing and documentary. As an appreciator of history, I see it as a both a national and world treasure.

Criterion's digital restoration work and added features, as always, are beautiful and appropriate. Brian Eno fans should know that there's much of his music here that isn't available on the "Apollo" album.

I own over 60 VHS tapes, dealing with NASA and no other film can convey the fellings you get from watching this movie. It puts you in the driver seat for the ride of your life. I wish all the young people of the world could watch this movie so that they could feel what we felt when it was happening in real time

I first saw this film in 1989 while working on my cinema production degree at USC in Los Angeles. Hosting the special screening was the film's director Al Reinert. The film's academy award nomination was already the talk of the film department, so I brought some high expectations with me to the screening. Also, being a long-time US Space Program enthusiast, and also having personally witnessed the liftoff of Apollo 11 when I was 5 years old, I was especially interested in the film's topic.

My first impression that night was typical for many Apollo enthusiasts; I thought "Hey, he (Reinert) jumbled the missions and voice-overs into a confusing montage!" I walked away unimpressed, but entertained.

About a year later, I saw the film again at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center theater in San Diego. This time, the film really hit the mark for me. I was overwhelmed by the mood & awe the film created. Alas, I "got it". And therein lies the beauty and secret genius to this film; it "gets it" too! It understands that it doesn't matter which Apollo astronaut or moonwalker is talking, or which mission is being depicted. It only matters that we planted 6 flags and sent 24 men to the moon (12 on the moon); their experience is common, their voice one. Reinert recognized this, and it is this distinction that allows For All Mankind to transcend mediocrity and become the great film that it is.

For many viewers, the film's subtlety & hissy voice over (which gives the voice over an engrossing, coffee table conversation quality) are likely to disguise its cleverness. And there is a lot of cleverness and genuinely good filmmaking in For All Mankind. I was especially impressed with the editing. Around the 1:02 hr mark there is a slow lunar pan with voice over (Apollo 17's Gene Cernan) commenting on how "you just had to steal the time to stop chiseling at a rock and contemplate where you were... and then suddenly you had to go back to work again". The slow pan ends on a moonwalker hammering a core sample into the surface. As a film school grad and filmmaker, I must say; nice editing! Simple and very effective.

Lesser documentaries on Apollo may offer you the technical aspects of this amazing feet. And few would dare to let a long, slow lunar pan play out uncut. But only For All Mankind gives you the human aspect of Apollo. Sure, it comes as the expense of some technical accuracy. But by emphasizing the human aspects of Apollo the film preserves the most important truths. And to very liberally paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, hundreds of years from now that is all that need be remembered, because that is all that really matters.

Today when watching the film I delight in telling people which mission footage they are seeing, who's talking, etc. (And I still cringe when I see the old standard of using the shot of Buzz Aldrin descending the ladder to the moon over Neil Armstrong's famous first words - yes, that's Buzz, not Neil. I've checked it against the uncut Apollo 11 TV footage. The bright spot you see reflecting through the LEM handing gear just to the left of Buzz is Neil already standing on the surface, taking photos of Buzz descending ladder. The shot of Neil descending the ladder didn't turn out very clear. Very few people, save for Ron Howard in Apollo 13, use it when depicting the first step on the moon) But these once important details have, for me, long since become trivial in light of For All Mankind's artistic accomplishments.

I didn't know it when I first saw it in 1989, but For All Mankind is the film I'd been waiting for ever since watching the moon missions live. (and, yes, Leonard Maltin, it WAS in fact filmed on location)

John Starr

For All Mankind is a fantatic video and audio record of mankind's greatest achievement, landing men on the moon. Al Reinart has assembled actual NASA footage and astronaut descriptive comments in a truly engaging manner. One hundred years from now, this will be the lasting record of the Apollo Program.