The British documentary In the Shadow of the Moon was made for people like Sherri Shepherd. Last week, while co-hosting an episode of The View, Shepherd stated that she didn’t know whether the earth was flat or round, citing her need to “feed her child” as more important than thinking (or learning) about the nature of our world.
Shepherd, along with other lunatics like Bill Kaysing and Bart Sibrel—who both deny that man has actually walked on the moon—are the people who need to see this moving doc the most, but almost everyone can benefit from a reminder about the amazing scope and accomplishments of the Apollo program.
From December 1968 to December 1972, NASA launched nine spacecrafts on the longest voyage of human exploration ever attempted. 24 Americans journeyed the 500,000 miles from the Earth to the moon and back, and of these, 12 actually walked on the lunar surface. These 24 men are to-date the only humans to ever travel beyond Earth orbit, and the only people to see the Earth from an alien world. In the Shadow of the Moon features archival footage (brilliantly re-mastered in HD) cut together with present day interviews with nine of the Apollo astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin (LM pilot on Apollo 11 and the second man to walk on the moon), Jim Lovell (one of only three astronauts to make the voyage twice and the ill-fated commander of Apollo 13), and Harrison Schmitt (the first scientist, and last human, to set foot on the moon as LM pilot of Apollo 17).
The film chronologically covers all of the incredibly risky aspects of an Apollo moon-landing mission, from the blast off a top the mighty, three-stage Saturn V rocket, where the capsule is accelerated to speeds exceeding 30,000 km/h—bullets, by comparison, only travel 5,400 km/h—to insertion into lunar orbit, the lunar landing, walking on the moon, lunar blast off, lunar orbit rendezvous, and finally re-entry through the earth’s atmosphere where temperatures outside the craft reach a staggering 11,000˚C. Hearing interviews with people who actually endured all of this, and lived to tell about it, is nothing short of remarkable.
Shadow also gives special pause to important moments in Apollo history: the fire that killed the crew of Apollo 1 during a launch pad training exercise, Apollo 11’s history-making moon landing, Apollo 13’s close brush with death, and the premature cancellation of the Apollo program by the U.S. Congress. It also combats the sad reality that anyone under the age of 35 is not old enough to remember a manned lunar mission firsthand.
In our current stunted state of space exploration (the space shuttle and International Space Station have kept manned missions tethered to earth orbit since Apollo) and with our less-than hopeful view of major American projects (the “re-building” of Iraq), it is inspiring to revisit a time when major risks were taken with vigor, and lofty, peaceful goals were achieved in the name of all mankind.
So, just as Dan Quayle received a dump-truck full of potatoes after misspelling the word at an elementary school spelling bee in 1992, let’s hope someone sends Sherri Shepherd several copies of this film, just so she can watch Bill Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell videotape the first recorded earthrise, shot as Apollo 8 emerged from the shadow of the moon and saw, for the first time, the full splendour of our strikingly spherical planet.
