26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You have to see this to believe it!, January 26, 2006
This review is from: Project Mercury: A New Frontier (DVD)
In the last couple years I've started buying up the Spacecraft Films on Gemeni and Apollo. I was only a little boy when the Apollo missions took place, and my memories of the moon footage are vauge at best. However, with these sets I've been able to go back and enjoy all those amazing moments and images in increadible detail. I thought that Apollo 11 or the late Apollo missions were the greatest hight this series could reach, but I was wrong. Project Mercury is the finest DVD set of the series.
Why? Well, party it's because the original Mercury astronauts are more legendary than any other individuals in the space program (with the possible exception of Ed White's first space walk, the crew of Apollo 11 first landing on the moon, and the brilliant performance and bravery of the crew of Apollo 13). From films like The Right Stuff, so many people know the names of these early pioneers of American space exploration. So how amazing is it to find that in this set we have, in astonishingly clear color imagry, all of the testing, training, launches, onboard and recovery footage preserved for us in this one set. Not only that, but you get to hear the press conferences and interviews and mission transmissions. Now I'm not one of those people who can be easily entertained by endless testing footage or engineering discussions. In other sets I've fast forwarded through some things because of this. In this set, however, every interview and conference is marked by the humor, wit and spirit of America's original Mercury astronauts, and I found myseld thorougly enjoying the cutting remarks and clever comebacks of these great Americans. There's a spirit and joy to this set that's hard to explain, but it's definately there.
For anyone with a real interest in the history and personalities of early space exploration, this is as rich a banquet for you as I can imagine. Even if you don't have the patience to sift through all of it at once, there's a great documentary overview on Mercury that begins the set with voice over from the Mercury astronauts themselves. You'll learn things you never knew about those flights, and I guarantee you'll come away even more impressed with the bravery and character of the astronauts and the hundreds of people who made these flights possible. If you've never purchased a Spacecraftfilms title before, this is the MUST HAVE title to being with.
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So This Is How It All Started ...!, January 15, 2006
This review is from: Project Mercury: A New Frontier (DVD)
I bought my first Spacecraftfilms set two years ago knowing nothing about the company, nothing about the man called Mark Gray.It was Gemini set and I was stunned ! After seeing that material my first idea was how nice it would be to have similar document on Mercury.
Well, it's here, and it's not just documentary, it is a surgical study of the first US steps into space which opened the road to the moon later in the decade. Six discs contain tremendous quantity of the material mapping the history of putting men and machines together to reach outer space for the first time.
There is everything from first ideas, development, tests to actual flights of the technology, detailed materials on recruitment, medical tests, training, flights and post-flight activities of the Original Seven.
Hours of material you simply cannot stop watching! One thing is absolutely sure - there exists nothing matching this documentary neither in completeness nor in quality.
Three full discs are dedicated to the missions itself with long hours of preparation, launcher assemblies, capsule tests and matings to the launchers, suiting of the astronauts, Mercury ingress, multi-angle launches, onboards (both video and audio), splashdowns (available with last two missions) and recoveries in full detail.
There are many rarities ( Carpenter onboard the rescue helicopter, Grissom watching the drogue canister of his lost Liberty Bell 7 onboard the aircraft carrier - the only part of his spaceship recovered that time, you can see the living legends like Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz and Gunter Wendt at their beginnings, you will admire the skills of the truck drivers maneuvering the trailers with launchers into impossible directions and angles, etc.), many surprises ( origin of the figure 7 in each Mercury spaceship name), added commentaries and interviews, VOA materials, and more. Simply 24 hours of watching and listening !
All unmanned test flights are covered - Little Joe escape tower tests are beautiful showing the detailed study of the escape system and parachutes sequence including onboards.
Liberty Bell 7 loss is another highlight - you can actually see Gus Grissom leaving the capsule and when you look at him minutes after being brought onboard the carrier you see how exhausted he was and that it was a close call really ! Multiangle footage of his capsule rescue attempts are documented in marvelous detail.
And there is competition as well ! Included is 16 minutes footage of the early Soviet Sputnik and Vostok flights in fantastic quality. You should see the Sputnik 1 or 2 launch - when starting rocket engines the flames are higher than than the launcher (!) - you would think it will all explode within seconds but it was probably normal (?).
The quality of the Spacecraftfilms materials is astonishing - I can't imagine the efforts to locate and refurbish all the old reels of film after that many years ! This is the biggest contribution of Spacecraftfils when making these materials available for public - the preservation of the history in much bigger quality than in original.
Big THANKS! to Spacecraftfils and to Mark Gray for this set - and all others still coming and those available - we space enthusiasts (and I do believe not only us) appreciate this work very very much.
Laurenc Svitok, Bratislava, Slovakia
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Project Mercury Collection..... EVER ., March 9, 2007
This review is from: Project Mercury: A New Frontier (DVD)
With so much information, this is the definitive collection on our methods and "madness," of how the US started into the manned space race. And how about HERO's? Everyone involved in this project should be wearing a medal... Wish I could give the Amazon rating 50 stars. Many thanks to Spacecraft Films, and Mark Gray for taking the time to document this spaceflight era, and include a lot of never-seen-before and rare footage for the general public. I highly recommend this collection, and thank you for reading my thoughts on it!
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