It’s easy to forget how much of an accomplishment the Apollo moon missions were. Looking back on it now, it seems like the entire event is represented by the same over-saturated stock clips and sound bytes, robbing it of any sense of passion, adventure or danger. Let’s just think about this for a second; these men were strapping themselves to the end of a 36 story rocket and being shot into space…in the 60’s. The moon landing pre-dated the invention of the VCR. If I have yet to blow your mind, Al Reinhert’s For All Mankind might just do the trick.

Although there’s been a recent boom in space documentaries, For All Mankind was one of the first that took the steps to revisit the hundreds of hours of NASA footage filmed by the astronauts throughout the moon missions. The result is a stunning collection of never-before-seen images that give audiences a whole new perspective on the Apollo missions, ranging from the awe of space or the flight control room minutia. Some of the most interesting images come from camera angles initially created for the single purpose of observation by project engineers. It was Reinert’s good sense of visual storytelling that convinced NASA that this footage, previously considered uninteresting to the general public, actually contained an element of beauty worth sharing with audiences.

Although For All Mankind is structured as one long moon mission, it’s actually pieced together from footage shot across many. This is fairly evident once we hit the Apollo 13 crisis, used as a point of conflict in the middle of the film. There’s even some Gemini footage thrown in for good measure. I can only imagine the challenge faced by Reinert in his attempt to construct an engaging story out of hundreds of hours of seemingly random footage shot not with the intentions of storytelling, but rather scientific documentation and publicity. The result is a compelling adventure that has its ups and downs and successfully communicates a sense of claustrophobia and danger as well as awe and inspiration. It’s also worth noting that Brian Eno, in collaboration with Roger Eno and Daniel Lanois, provides amazing score containing what I feel is one of the prettiest pieces of music ever written.

The Criterion Collection’s blu ray release of For All Mankind lives up to their previously set expectations. The picture quality is top notch, presented in the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio and retaining a natural film grain. The colours are especially vibrant, especially when compared to the source material, as displayed in the supplemental materials. Speaking of which, we get a slightly updated collection of bonus features with the addition of a fairly interesting making of documentary. Here’s something that blew my mind: I’d always wondered how NASA retrieved to footage from the jettisoned missile pieces. The solution is insanely cumbersome by todays standards; the camera would automatically eject the magazine, which then would fall back to earth — complete with its own heat shield and parachute system — only to be scooped up mid air by net wielding airplanes. Crazy!

For those of you who haven’t seen For All Mankind, you’re in for a real treat with this high definition edition. Anybody who purchased the previous standard version of the film; you might want to consider upgrading. Criterion continues its reign over the blu ray kingdom with yet another worthwhile release. — Jay C.

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