Speaking of movies (see previous post) I’m looking foward to seeing In the Shadow of the Moon coming this fall. It’s the feature documentary about the Apollo space program and
the first-ever landing on the moon.

For boomers, this was probably the most exciting time as a generation. From Kennedy setting the goal of “putting a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth” before the end of the decade.

The U.S. and U.S.S.R. were in a cold war and space race. They seemed to be way ahead of us, putting sputnik in orbit first, then a monkey, then a man in orbit.

All we had were big explosions on the launch pad.

Eventually the Apollo program came together and put an American flag on the moon. It was followed later by jaw-dropping video of moon buggies and astronauts bouncing around hitting golf balls.

One of the moon walkers said it was like standing on “God’s front porch.”

Another comments in the movie trailer say there was a sense that we, meaning the human race, did it not the U.S. alone.

Ten of the surviving astronauts who journeyed to the moon tell their stories in their own words, accompanied by NASA footage, a lot of it never seen before in a feature film, and all of it re-mastered.

There are interviews with astronauts Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13), Dave Scott (Apollo 9 and 15), John Young (Apollo 10 and 16), Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and 17), Mike Collins (Apollo 11), Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Alan Bean (Apollo 12), Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16) and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17).

It’s sure to be a big favorite for the Academy Award for best documentary. I can’t wait.