Customer Reviews

Project Mercury: A New Frontier

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
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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.

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

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!

Spacecraft Films is without a doubt the single best producer of DVD Documentary material around today. The first thing that struck me when I first started ordering these sets was just how clean and impressive the packaging is. I love that they follow a standard design with all of their sets. I hate how companies put out DVD sets that are in every shape and size imaginable. All the DVD companies should take Spacecraft Films lead and just make the packaging for sets simple & beautiful.

This set was the one I have been looking forward to the most as it has all of the astronauts that I was most familiar with while I was growing up. Anyone who has seen the movie the Right Stuff has the idea on who the astronauts are in this set. 6 monstrous discs full of everything imaginable regarding Mercury is included and I honestly think that this is the best made set to date. I wont go into the details on whats included as it would take forever, ill just say trust me its all in here.

If your a fan of Spacecraft films or just a fan of the mercury program, this set is a must buy. While it is a little expensive, its well worth every penny. People spend 20 bucks on a movie that is under 2 hours long and they will most likely never view it again. This set has over 24 hours of footage that i guarantee will have multiple viewings. So again my hats of to Spacecraft Films, You have done for space documentaries what Criterion has done for classic movies. I honestly think that you and Criterion are the 2 best studios on the field today and nobody else is even close in terms of quality and subject matter. my only wish was that your stuff was available at my local Best Buy :-)

MN....

This is a great source for anyone interested in the USA's early steps into space. Much of the photography almost takes your breath away with its clarity and quality.

However, be advised that most of it is engineering study material- for instance there are a great number of shots of rockets firing and vanishing out of frame because the camera was fixed. Almost all of it is silent.

The narration leaves a bit to be desired too. Apparently someone decided that there had to be some kind of sound accompanying the films, so there are many shots that have unrelated interviews, news conferences or even speeches running during the footage.

Particulary disappointing are several interviews that were conducted with Max Faget-the primary designer of the spacecraft. The quality is terrible. It's more than difficult to understand him, and his constant "HEH HEH HEH HEH," almost blows your speakers.

Also, although this DVD set is advertised as being over 24 hours long, almost eight of those hours are audio only.

Despite these drawbacks, I found it enjoyable and worth the money.

The only thing you need to know about the 6 men who flew on Mercury is that 1 in 7 Mercury test flights ended with the loss of the spacecraft. While it would have been nice to see Slayton fly in a Mercury capsule, the odds are one of them might not have made it home alive. They were riding on rockets designed to hurl nuclear warheads half way across the planet, not to carry a man into space. The Redstones and Atlases were modified for manned flight, but they were still very temperamental. It's a miracle all of them survived. How did they make it? Buy this set and find out. It's all there. From developing the spacecraft, through all the test flights (both successful and the disasterous ones), to selecting and training of the men and monkeys who flew them. That's right, you even get to see Ham training for his flight. You won't get that on the NASA channel.

Spacecraft Films is the absolute best when it comes to NASA video history. They give it their all and it shows in every title they put out. The Project Mercury set is no different. Spacecraft Films digs deep to find every frame of film shot on each mission as well as every word spoken before, during and after each flight. They can bring you the entire mission in digital quality. Yes, they're a company, but they've done us a great service in preserving the historical record of some of the most fascinating and daring adventures mankind has ever taken, none better than the Mercury missions presented in this set.

If you want to know anything about any pioneer NASA mission, or if you just want to relive your childhood dreams, Spacecraft Films is the only source you'll ever need. I own the entire collection. Everything from Mercury through the flight of Apollo 17. I love them all, and so will you.

Project Mercury: A New Frontier is the best box set by Spacecraft Films ever. It contains the most comprehensive coverage of the Mercury Program to be found anywhere and in the finest, clearest and best possible resolution. It is still available from Spacecraft Films for a high but reasonable price and will probably become a collector's item as indicated by everything I have read.

As a young rocketeer I remember staying home from junior high and high school to watch the Mercury launches live on TV, but these full color razor sharp films from Spacecraft Films have preserved these moments for our children and grandchildren.

Spacecraft Films have for the last 6 years become synonymous with superb picture quality and exhaustive attention to detail.

This 6-disc set continues that tradition. Each mission has extensive coverage from preparation, pre-launch, launch, flight and recovery. John Glenn's mission has the addition of a two angle feature during the flight phase, where you can view the flight from instrument panel or the astronaut point-of-view.

There is also a wealth of material detailing the development of the Mercury programme, including spacecraft, launch vehicle and sites.

The audio track includes many interviews of people involved in the Mercury programme, and you can hear the entire audio of the air-to-ground transmissions of each flight.

Highly recommendedProject Mercury: A New Frontier