Product Details

• Actors: Spacecraft Films
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: August 19, 2003
• Run Time: 600 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00009XYYF
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #50,483 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Documentary > Space Exploration

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Mankind's greatest adventure is remembered for the digital age. The DVD format changed the way we look at movies and especially TV series, with massive complete-season sets. That concept is spectacularly taken one-step further with Spacecraft Films' definitive collections of the Gemini and Apollo space missions, stuffing in nearly every scrap of TV transmissions and on-board footage. The three- to six-disc sets use the full functions of the DVD format; see a liftoff in six different angles (some remixed with 5.1 sound) or listen to a mixture of air-to-ground communications, official NASA narration, or post-flight debriefings, most often carefully synched to the exact moment of footage seen. Like any good research paper, every bit of footage may not be interesting, but taken as a chronicle of history, it's irreplaceable.

NASA's most monumental mission was Apollo 11, placing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon. Unfortunately, it's one of the least stunningly photographed missions, with grainy black-and-white TV footage for the two-hour moon walk. However it's so rare that hardly anyone has seen more than a few seconds of this broadcast since 1969. Watch the broadcast as it was (alas, no Walter Cronkite, but this is the NASA feed--not a network), or watch the 16mm color footage shot by a stationary camera inside the lunar module, or watch a composition of both that also displays the famous photographs at the moment they were taken (how cool is that?). The moon walk is only one of three discs and there's another eight hours of footage, including all the onboard film and TV transmissions, pre-and post flight news conferences, and 15 views of the launch. Plus there's plenty of behind-the-scenes footage--the assembly of the giant Saturn 5 spacecraft, moon-walk rehearsals, and capsule recovery. For space junkies, it's the ultimate visual treasure trove. Any kid who has primed himself watching Ron Howard's majestic Apollo 13 (which featured no real space footage) will probably be disappointed in the lack of "cool" footage (oddly, the earlier Gemini missions have more "whoa" photography), but anybody interested in the moon mission finally has a complete chronicle of what it looked like when it happened. --Doug Thomas

Product Description

Own a piece of history! The most complete record ever available of this historic mission. This 3-disc set - over 10 hours in all - chronicles America's "one giant leap for mankind" from launch to landing with comprehensive footage from the film and videotape records of Apollo 11, the landmark event of man's achievement in the 20th Century. Features all TV transmissions, all 16mm on-board film, multi-angle views of the launch and lunar landing, and multiple audio tracks. Bonus features include the launch vehicle build, crew suit-up, recovery, and extra TV feeds including on-board audio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Wealth of Information, September 20, 2003

By	Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I have been wanting someone to do this for years. The first memory that I can recall is at age four watching the telecast of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon, and I have been hooked ever since. There have been many excellent Apollo documentaries over the years since, but this is a totally different concept.

Instead of taking the strict documentary approach and editing the raw materiel until only the subjective 'best' materiel is left, the producers show basically all the uncut, raw materiel, frequently from different perspectives or with different options. Examples here are watching the Lunar Landing film taken from the LMP window synched with numerous different soundtrack options such as the Flight Director Loop, the TELCOMM (later TELMU) loop (which is of particular interest during the 1202 and 1201 Program Alarms), the PAO loop, or the onboard recorder from Eagle. Similarly, you can select up to six different angles to watch the launch from.

This set is simply amazing to watch. It includes all the TV transmissions and onboard 16 mm film. If you are interested in Apollo or space exploration, you absolutely must have this DVD set. You will love it.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spacecraft Films "Space History Series" is a must buy!!!, August 22, 2003

By	"bookworm5000" (Reisterstown, MD USA) - See all my reviews

My ninth birthday was July 20, 1969, some guys walked on the moon. Yawn.

My Dad kept nudging me to stay awake and to make me remember this historical moment in time... I tried, but I was sleepy. The picture was fuzzy on our 9 inch tv screen. He told me by the time I was a grown up people would be taking their vacations on the moon! (he was a little off on that predicton!)

The 3 dvd set "Apollo 11, Men on the Moon" gives you everything you could possibly want in recapturing that impressive moment so many years ago. The film, the tv, the audio of the astronauts and mission control doing an incredible feat with grace, skill and yes, heroism. If it had a commentary track with the astronauts I would probably never leave my house, so that is the only thing that could make it better, as it is, it comes as close to perfection as humanly possible.

When there is no video of a certain point in the EVA, the producers give you the pictures the astronauts took from the surface of the moon along with the real-time audio of the events taking place.

NASA has put out some terrible looking videos over the years, with some horrific sound tracks, this IS THE REAL DEAL, exactly what I have been looking for and I am so glad I found it!

The critical moment when the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was about to land on the moon, there were a few error messages called out from Mission Control, an alarm on the computer was going off, the guys on the ground analyzed it and said they were go for landing on the moon, and then during landing, Armstrong came to within 30 seconds of running out of fuel.... it really is amazing that these folks did this in 1969.

The producers of this dvd give you the chance to just listen to the astronauts, or just to mission control, or to hear a 5.1 surround mix, and listening to Gene Kranz do the poll for landing, Go, NO GO, was a huge thrill to me. I got chills. I got chills just thinking about it just now!

Separating the audio tracks, and giving the viewer the use of the "angle" button to choose what video to watch is a great bonus and shows the extent to which the producers of these dvds know how to pack in the quality, for example on Disc 2 for the EVA, on angle 3 you can watch the 16mm film from the LMP window on the LEM, the TV downlink, the Hasselblad still images and an EVA training film ....wow! That sure beats that scratchy NASA video with the wonky music on the sound track!!!

Kudos to this team of media giants at Spacecraft Films, they made this dvd series a wonderful experience and I am looking forward to more of their offerings!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nasa Footage At Its Best!!!, September 4, 2003

By	OrangeCrush "Still shooting with Film!" (Farmington Hills, MI USA) - See all my reviews

I am a huge Nasa Fan and am really sick of the lame DVD sets that have been released in the past!!! I have really wondered why Nasa never released comprehensive footage of not only the missions in space but also what goes on behind the scenes to make these voyages possible. Well my prayers have been awnsered. This 3 DVD set shows everything from assembling the actual rockets to the training that the astronauts undergo to take such a trip.

Almost everyone in the world has seen armstrong set foot on the moon and have heard the infamous statment "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". Thats it though, we have never been alowed to see much of anything else. Well this DVD set makes up for all of the waiting. Not only does it give complete footage of the entire moonwalk, but also complete footage of the film made of the moon itself from Apollo while buzz and armstrong were on the moon. One of the best parts of this DVD is the actual takeoff from the launchpad which can be viewed from, If I remember correctly, 7 different views which can be swiched at a moments notice with the angle button on your DVD remote.

Other great footage includes all the broadcasts which were made for the television viewing audience. There is really too much on these DVD's to go into detail about. If you are a fan, such as I am, of the space program then buy these without a question. I have just read that the additional DVD's that are coming out will be 6 DVD's, not 3. I cant imagine how good these are going to be. Anyways to sum it up these are amazing, facinating and quite simply the best footage ever relaesed to the public for the amazing voyages. My only complaint is that it took this long to release these. Enjoy, I know I have!!!