Amazon.com: Destination Moon : John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, Dick Wesson, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Grace Stafford, Franklyn Farnum, Everett Glass, Kenner G. Kemp, Knox Manning, Mike Miller, Irving Pichel, Irving Pichel, Alford Van Ronkel, James O'Hanlon, Robert A. Heinlein: Movies & TV

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An American man gets support to help build a rocket so the U.S. can get to the moon before the Russians.
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: NR
Release Date: 28-OCT-2003
Media Type: DVD

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When production on Destination Moon began in 1949, everything about the project was state of the art. The great science fiction author Robert Heinlein cowrote the script (based on his novel Rocketship Galileo) and served as technical advisor. The film's astronomical visions were realized by Chesley Bonestell, whose artwork virtually defined the look of space travel at the dawn of the rocket era. Destination Moon is even noted in NASA's official timeline of space-travel history, and almost inevitably won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects. It remains a milestone film, not so much as classic science fiction but--like 2001: A Space Odyssey 18 years later--as an attempt to visualize the reality of space exploration. (To educate the audience on this topic, Woody Woodpecker makes an animated guest appearance, hosting an instructional film on the basics of rocketeering.)

The movie now seems quaintly nostalgic, and its depiction of man's first lunar landing is inaccurate on several details. Taken in context, however, it remains impressively authentic, and conveys the same charm and wonder of the later classic Forbidden Planet. The motivation for the lunar conquest remains military: the country that controls the moon will control the Earth, and cold war paranoia fuels the mission of the rocket ship Luna, which blasts off from the Mojave desert carrying four daring astronauts.

The stalwart crew consists of noted scientists and engineers, but Everyman Joe Sweeney (Dick Wesson) is aboard for broad audience appeal; he's the kind of Bronx-born guy who pronounces "Earth" as "oith" and complains that the moon has "no beer, no babes, no baseball." But when a payload crisis threatens the crew's safe return to Earth, Joe rises to the occasion. It's all a bit goofy now, but Destination Moon is still a wonderful movie, bursting with the awe and enthusiasm that would eventually lead to "one giant leap for mankind." --Jeff Shannon

Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.33:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 5.5 x 0.75 inches; 0.32 Ounces
Director ‏ : ‎ Irving Pichel
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Color, NTSC, Multiple Formats
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 32 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ January 1, 1950
Actors ‏ : ‎ John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, Dick Wesson, Erin O'Brien-Moore
Language ‏ : ‎ Unqualified (DTS ES 6.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Studio ‏ : ‎ IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
ASIN ‏ : ‎ 6305761078
Writers ‏ : ‎ Alford Van Ronkel, James O'Hanlon, Robert A. Heinlein
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #38,966 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #800 in Science Fiction DVDs

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4.4 530 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

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Pittsburgh Bill

Great 19050's Sci-Fi Classic

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2023

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This is a great 1950's Sci-Fi Classic. Great story line. For the 1950's the special effects were pretty good. Acting was what you would expect for a movie of this caliper. A must watch !

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Donald K. Dossett

ALL-TIME FAVORITE SPACE SCI-FI MOVIE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2010

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DESTINATION MOON (1950) 5Oth anniversary edition.
Filmed in "TECHNICOLOR" , as it was the 1st full color sci-fi space film.
Directed by George Pal , came out a week after "ROCKETSHIP X-M", but "DESTINATION MOON" is so technically superior you would swear these 2 films were a decade apart.
The premise of the movie is 4 men in a rocketship dubbed "LUNA", built by private manufacturers at the prodding of the U.S goverment. The U.S concerns are whoever controls the moon controls earth, and the U.S certainly does not want that to be RUSSIA. The goverment will reimburse the private companies but cannot accept the possibility of failure themselves in the public eye.
A nice Woody Woodpecker cartoon short in the movie did a pretty good job of explaining the theory of rocket propulsion to a group of potential private investors and of course to the movie audience. (Reminds you of Jurrasic Park where they have a cartoon explaining the theory of DNA )
Our 4 heroes have to take off in "Luna" quickly, because of the evergrowing public sentiment and a forthcoming court order due to the fearful consequences of the atomic propulsion engine.Just before they can be served with the court order to stop their flight , they take off for the moon.
The movie sets are very slick, showing space equipment with all its dials, meters and various doo hickeys. You have to remember this is 19 years before man actually lands on the moon. It seems a lot of thought went into making this movie as technically accurate as was possible at the time. Demostrates the forces of G force and weightlessness on the body.
Most of the moon sets were painted backdrops ( as in other George Pal films). The close-up scenes of the moonwalking outside the ship were great for the time. The far off shots of the moon walking were not so great, as it was rather bad stop-action special effects with clay models that looked like well...clay models. The colorful space suits were pretty neat and actually looked like what was worn 19 years later.
The final credits roll "This Is The End....Of The Beginning "
The only complaint I have is that the transfer to DVD is not of high quality , sometimes it is scratchy with some static, sometimes the color appears washed out.
You cannot go wrong in purchasing this DVD, it is the best of the best when it comes to the classic sc-fi space exploration films of the 1950's.

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Jay S.

Great movie

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2023

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Grew up reading Robert Heinline, got the movie to see the stories I read as a child. Award winning effects for the time.

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2023

Sit back and enjoy

Probably Stockton Rush's favorite film

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2023

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A very good film for its time, and an accurate depiction of space travel given the science of the early 1950s. Not surprisingly for a story written by Robert Heinlein, it's a very libertarian tale of heroic businessmen defying government regulation and safety concerns to pursue a personal dream. I'm willing to bet that the film was a great inspiration to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

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Jace

Oscar Winner Best Effects, Special Effects

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2023

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A top notch crack team of astronauts composed of an aerospace scientist (Warner Anderson), an ex-Air Force general (Tom Powers) and an industrialist (John Archer) conceive an ambitious plan to land Americans on the moon. From their base in the Mojave Desert, (Edwards A.F.B.) they construct and successfully launch a spacecraft named "Luna" that contains a cargo of four astronauts. But a critical miscalculation of needed power to escape the moon's gravitational pull may put the astronauts' lives in danger. Probably Bezos’s inspiration.

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2023

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This has always been one of the most riveting and carefully thought through real science fiction movies.

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H. Snyder

Accurate Conjecture About Spaceflight Before Sputnik

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2013

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George Pal's movie directing career began in the 1930s. He was a leading Hollywood proponent of science fiction and fantasy special effects in the late 1940s through the mid 1960s. His production of Destination Moon was released in 1950, years before spaceflight actually began. For kids in the 1950s this was an inspirational and exciting story, even though we had no idea as to its accuracy. Viewing it now as an adult is a sudden return to childhood, with the added appreciation of a vision of spaceflight that turned out to be astonishingly accurate in many respects.

Recall that this was years before even an unmanned satellite had been launched. Watch the countdown and launch, the depiction of the effects of acceleration and weightlessness, going from the pressurized interior of the spacecraft to the vacuum of space, moving on the lunar surface, the appearance of spacesuits, the vital calculation of weight for takeoff, and numerous other details. This accuracy is not so surprising when you find that the film was based on a story by Robert Heinlein, who also had a hand in writing the screenplay.

As a child I was fascinated by this story, and I had the record as well as seeing the film at a theater. The comic relief character in the movie was replaced by a young boy in the recording, with whom other young boys were supposed to identify closely. And many did, and likely some girls as well.

The quality of this production was recognized with an Academy Award for best special effects. The DVD is an un-restored copy from a print in good condition, and very enjoyable. It should rate four stars from a neutral observer, but for someone like me for whom it is a return to a cherished fantasy of childhood, it is a solid 5.

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Rene McCron

good delivery time.

Reviewed in Canada on November 30, 2022

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Good quality. Not steaming an any medium. Glad could buy it.

Cliente Amazon

Clásico film de ciencia ficción.

Reviewed in Spain on November 16, 2023

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Clásico film de ciencia ficción de los años 50's. Ingenuidad en su argumento, pero se aprecia y disfruta la creatividad cinematográfica en aquellos primeros años. La calidad de imagen en color excelente y la resolución es bastante buena. La opción de audio en español es un valor agregado a este DVD.
La atención del vendedor fue rápida y eficaz al igual que el pronto envío.

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Foucrier Xavier

les premiers pas sur la Lune 19 ans avant Apollo 11

Reviewed in France on July 6, 2019

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ce film est à la charnière entre "la femme sur la lune" de Fritz Lang et la véritable mission Apollo 11, avec le paysage lunaire de Chesley Bonestell, il a directement inspiré "on a marché sur la lune" de Hergé.

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Amazon カスタマー

オールディーズ

Reviewed in Japan on June 22, 2018

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青年時代に初めて映画館でお金を払って見た映画です。懐かしい。

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Keith Naylor

Over the Moon!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 14, 2014

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Think of the greatest sci-fi movies of the 50s and one name keeps hitting the headlines - that of GEORGE PAL, visionary producer of such classics as:

Conquest of Space 1955
War of the Worlds 1953
When Worlds Collide 1951 and
DESTINATION MOON 1950.

Classic fantasy mind trips to stir the imagination. Movies that will be enjoyed by each new generation for years to come. Movies made with loving care, intelligent scripts, wonderful special effects, and generous budgets so they could be experienced to the full in living colour.

Destination Moon is a landmark in space movies, years ahead of similar movies being made at the time, and the first of its kind to give us a sense of realistic space travel with the effects of extreme acceleration on the body, the effects of weightlessness, and the bizarre wonders of going EVA.

The beauty of colour is used to striking effect, particularly in the most logical choice of spacesuits and the most convincing panoramic moonscape ever put to film. An out of this world gem!

The cinema audiences of the 50s were very lucky - just imagine how stunning these movies must have looked on a giant cinema screen. I envy them.

BUT, have these movies dated? In some respects of course they have. Styles in scripts and acting change throughout time, and of course technology and special effects have improved tremendously, and it would be absurd to compare DESTINATION MOON with STAR WARS for example.

If older movies are to be enjoyed they HAVE to be viewed in light of the period in which they were made, otherwise such classics of the cinema such as Frankenstein 1931, Gone With the Wind 1939, High Noon 1952, The Ten Commandments 1956, and that wonderful sci-fi spectacle - Forbidden Planet 1956, and many many others, would be unfairly judged, or maybe avoided altogether, which would be tragic. KAN

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Genre	Science Fiction
Format	Color, NTSC, Multiple Formats
Contributor	Kenner G. Kemp, Grace Stafford, James O'Hanlon, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Alford Van Ronkel, Franklyn Farnum, Everett Glass, John Archer, Mike Miller, Warner Anderson, Knox Manning, Irving Pichel, Dick Wesson, Tom Powers, Robert A. Heinlein See more
Language	English
Runtime	1 hour and 32 minutes

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Destination Moon

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