From the Earth to the Moon

Rating:
Summary: You want space history, you get it here.
Review: I originally saw this when HBO aired it in late April to early May of 1998. I wasn't even born when these events actually happened, so to be able to see the accomplishments of the NASA space program is wonderful, not only for myself, but for the people who did see it when it happened. This documentary covers Alan Shepards' flight of Mercury 7, President Kennedys' speech that got the space program off the ground, up through Apollo 17 - sadly, Americas' last steps on the moon.

Rating:
Summary: Mankind Leaves His Home Planet
Review: The praises of this series have been sung by others, and I heartily recommend this DVD to everyone, but I would like to make a few points, some of which are negative, but which don't detract from the immense value of this series.

(1) Without the development of the giant Saturn V Moon rocket, man never would have gotten to the Moon, and yet its development, unlike that of the Command Module and Lunar Module is not dealt with and yet its story was just as dramatic. The problem of "combustion instability" and its solution is very interesting and took the lives of some excellent engineers but it is not mentioned. It is interesting that Wernher von Braun, the head of this effort is barely mentioned or shown in the series, whereas he was a very visible P.R. man for the space program in the 1950's and 1960's. I believe the producers of this series were aware of von Braun's past as a Captain in the dreaded Nazi SS and his possible (not proven) role in the war crimes involved in the production of the V-2 rocket in World War II and they didn't want to bring up this controversy.
(2) I give great credit to the producers for the episode about the development of the Lunar Module and the other episode showing how the astronauts were trained to become proficient geologists on the Moon. Science and engineering are usually not interesting for the television viewer, and yet these things were made quite interesting. My only complaint is that the engineers
who worked on the Lunar Module are shown to be a bunch of lovable "nerds" who view the work as recreation, but in reality many engineers gave their lives as heroes, just as did the Apollo 1 astronauts, because of the immense stress due to the time pressure. Others survived but had the marriages and family lives ruined. None of this is really shown.
(3) The actors who played Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first two men on the moon, played by Tony Goldwyn and Bryan Cranston, put in especially superb performances. Aldrin, the troubled genius, was especially well portrayed by Cranston who put in a lot of time studying Aldrin before filming commenced.
(4) The episode about Alan Shepard and Apollo 14 was quite good in showing how the flight controllers and the support teams led by Don Eyles overcame the Abort Switch malfunction. Here real-time problem-solving was shown. I was, however, disappointed that the Apollo 16 mission was not really shown because they had a more serious problem with the back-up Service Propulsion System which
also had a problem and was quite solved in a similar way. The Apollo 16 crew's exploration of the Descartes-Cayley site would have been quite interesting too because it was quite different than expected.
(5) The episode about the end of the program in Apollo 17 was both good and bad, the bad part being the story that Tom Hanks appears in about the filming of the early 20-th century movie about a flight to the Moon. This was just a waste of time, in addition to the slander against Thomas Edison. There were more important things to show, in my opinion. However, the end of the episode leaves me with tears in my eyes, because of all that had been accomplished in such a short time, and was then allowed to be thrown away because of short-sightedness. I hope that the Presidents recent decision to go back to the Moon will be carried out because Mankind needs to look to the future and to continually expand his horizons.

Rating:
Summary: Illuminating, inspiring, uneven - and worth every minute
Review: Yes, yes - it is uneven, but that's part of why this miniseries is so good. Tom Hanks, Ron Howard and friends were smart enough not to merely recycle "The Right Stuff" and "Apollo 13," but to experiment with different stories and different viewpoints and visuals. As the majority has commented, great pains have also been taken to cover more than the "highlight reel", and be more historically accurate.

Some of the standouts:

"Apollo One" covers the tragic training exercise that killed Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Ed White. Interestingly, I have never seen Mark Rolston (Grissom) in a sympathetic part before, and here he plays one of the most revered astronauts of the entire space program! Both here and in a later episode, the engineers behind the spacecraft are profiled - one of the most intriguing and interesting parts of the whole series. Engineers and designers are so rarely given credit or shown to be "cool" or even dedicated, kudos to the producers for doing so.

The episode "1968" mixes disturbing and compelling real-life news footage to show the prevailing chaos that year. The skillful editing really gives you a sense of the paranoia that reigned that year, with MLK and RFK being assassinated within months of each other, as well as the Chicago DNC riots.

Bryan Cranston and Tony Goldwyn crackle in their roles as tense Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. The next episode is a relief: Dave Foley is very, very funny, along with Tom Verica and Paul Crane as the 'also-rans' of the Apollo program.

Overall, it's just a pleasure to see the different approaches. Even when it falls flat a bit, the producers deserve so much credit for taking chances here.

I disliked the third episode, mocked up as a '60s documentary (it came off as way too polished, rather than the astro "Medium Cool" it apparently was meant to be)... And the episode with reporter "Emmett Smith" being sucker-punched by a young and hungry Jay Mohr wasn't as strong as it could have been, since we hadn't seen so much of "Smith's" personal side up until then, although he is one of the few constants through the many episode. If they had developed "Smith" as a character more, it would have been much more effective. Both cases were more critiques of the media than dramatic storytelling or historical reenactment.

Kudos also for paying attention to the heavy burden carried by astronaut wives - many of whom had already paid dues as test pilot wives. The original novel "The Right Stuff" is absolutely poetic on the same topic.

Note: A below review claims that the Russians sent an "unqualified woman" into space. Ouch! Sounds like selective history. Actually, the Soviet Union has had a long history of female aviators, namely the famed "Nacht Waxen", bomber and fighter pilots who fought during WWII. The Soviets even had two female aces, both of whom died in combat.

When the Mercury group was picked in the US, men with aviation experience were selected. Only a few, like Gus Grissom, were also scientists with advanced degrees. (Today, very few astronauts are primarily military-trained pilots, with most of them being literally, our brightest scientists.)

Likewise, Valentina Tereshkova was a parachutist, which is why she was one of the three women initially selected to train as a cosmonaut. After the training and poking and prodding she received, just like the Mercury astronauts, it's hardly fair to call her "unqualified".

Laika the dog was unqualified, but not Tereshkova. Geez.

I suppose that because she was an industrial worker, her parachuting experience was slighted by the reviewer, even though communism often sent bright, but socially unconnected men and women into factories and menial labor.

Ironically, the US had many qualified women pilots - Jacqueline Cochran, a record-breaking test pilot springs to mind - but waited until 1983 to send a woman into space.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to overstate the quality of this production
Review: Extremely well done and with very good job balancing the dramatic and technical aspects. Everything about this production is first rate. I've watched it several times and some segments a half a dozen or more. Suitable for audiences interested in either the technical or non-technical aspects of the space race.

It was so well done that even its deficiencies can't reduce its overall impact: 1) the Apollo 13 segment was much less about that mission rather than the media circus around it (hint: watch the movie "Apollo 13" instead). 2) Von Braun's contributions only get passing mention; I would have liked to see more about the development of the Saturn Rockets.

Rating:
Summary: The right stuff beyond Apollo 13, from the Earth to the Moon
Review: I was born in July of 1968, and my "birthday present" for my first birthday was the landing of Apollo 11. So by the time of the death of manned space exploration, I was having my First Communion. Then came along "The Right Stuff", a film that truly had THE RIGHT STUFF and made me hunger for more to learn about the history of space that occured during my lifetime. Then came "Apollo 13", showing that people did not give a darn anymore about space, unless it was a matter of life or death, and this gave impetus to the star of the film to take the same quality of "The Right Stuff" and "Apollo 13" and do the best possible in showing the entire story of travels "From the Earth to the Moon". This along with growing up with the PBS series from Carl Sagan, "Cosmos" gave me a great love for aerospace. I graduated from High School soon after the Challenger exploded, and as a 35 year old retired and disabled adult the Columbia was lost. But I hope that this is not the death of manned space missions, and the return to manned space exploration will occur hopefully with a permanent return to the Moon, perhaps outposts on Mars, and beyond.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Overview of NASA in the Sixties
Review: Thank you Ron Howard! Obviously you touched a national nerve with the outstanding "Apollo 13," and took that concept and extended it into this wonderfully filmed and acted semi-documentary account of the NASA of the 1960s that was seemingly unstoppable.

In this film the actors do yeoman's work, and come across as the enigmatic guys they were: serious yet pranksters; competitive yet team players; in command yet able to follow orders. The beauty of this, of course, is that is exactly the truth. Conrad and Bean come across as great buddies, Armstrong comes across as a hyper-competent, serious and retiring test pilot and everyone else seems similarly true to form throughout the series. My hat is off to the actors: they nailed it.

Another favorite feature of the series for me is the evenhandedness, rather than an almost exclusive focus on the 'Biggie' missions (Apollo 8, 11, and 13) that are most commonly dealt with in film. They are adequately addressed, but so are many other equally dramatic events that seldom enter the public's consciousness. A perfect example is the depiction of the stuck thruster incident encountered by Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott on Gemini 8, in which a thruster sent them tumbling in all three axes, and which became so severe that only Armstrong's quick thinking was able to salvage the situation before they blacked out due to excessive G loads. According to some inside NASA it was this quick thinking that earned him the CDR spot for Apollo 11. Of further note are the special effects, which, similarly to "Apollo 13" are excellent. (Try watching the Gemini 8 segment on a big screen TV and not feeling queasy and nervous.)

Overall a super job. I have heard some people say that this is too long and others that it's too short. Obviously the producers can't satisfy all tastes (and being a serious Apollo-phile, it could always be longer for me) but in general I think they got it just about perfect. If you have any interest in the Apollo program, or spaceflight in general, this is an excellent effort that you should definitely own.

Rating:
Summary: Whats makes this one of the best DVD's ever to watch on TV?
Review: - Facts are real, has plenty of information about what probably is humankind`s greatest achievement. The mix of real footage and amazingly created ones add to its real life/documentary spirit. But it`s far from being a documentary, although every fact is real. It goes beyond on the narration.

- It`s not "Americana" on its spirit. Mr. Hanks and his team deserve merits for showing this great achievement as a mankind victory instead of an "America only" feat. Congratulations!

- Each episode is presented thru an original point of view, not the one you`d expect. This gives new life to the facts. The Apollo 13 episode, for example, shows how an anchor man from a TV network faced his drama at the same time as the astronauts. A great achievement since if it was presented the other way it would fail when compared to the movie. Actually, one complements the other.

- Many generations have not lived the man on the moon. This is the best way to give them a small feeling of what that meant. It`s the closest an historical document can get to emotion. Anyone will learn great and funny facts from the Apollo project and its missions.

- Episodes are very successful in passing the feeling of this great achievement. You`ll be proud of it, specially if you happened to be alive when it happened. At the end you`ll regret the fact that today we (humans/nations) spend too much time and energy with small problems that don`t take anyone anywhere.

- On the latest episode you`ll learn that one of the century`s "greatest" men was, actually, the first pirate whose actions screwed the life of the first great filmmaker.

- Mr. Hanks talents go far beyond acting. Congratulations!

- Acting is amazing, direction perfect, screenplays compelling. You won`t believe this was "just" a 12 episode TV miniseries. It`s FAR better than many movies made on science fiction/space exploration genres.

The only point where they`ve sleeped:

- The box and its opening "book" scheme doesn`t feel it`ll be up to date when man reaches Mars.

I`d like to remind you all that this is not a science fiction miniseries. Its focus is on the spirit, the challenge, the emotions, the technology, the men and women involved on taking the man on a voyage from the Earth to the Moon.

At around US$ 80.00, it`s far from cheap. But worth every cent.

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding mini series on the moon landings
Review: From The Earth To The Moon is an outstanding mini-series on the moon landings and tells a thorough and entertaining story.
To answer the incorrect criticisms of "a viewer from Canada" further down the reviews,the Soviets also took risks in their spaceflights.
The Soviets crammed three men into a two man capsule purely to claim the first three man flight and they also put an unqualified woman in a capsule to claim the first female cosmonaut. This was done for propaganda purpose whereas the American flights all had research reasons behind them. Our "viewer from Canada" also conviently forgets the hundreds of employees in the USSR killed when their untested Soviet moon rocket exploded. This was covered up for many years.
The first photos of the earthrise taken from the moon were taken by an American unmanned orbiter and not the Soviet Zond spacecraft as "viewer from Canada" claimed.
Whatever his gripes,this great documentary series is a lot more accurate than him.

Rating:
Summary: As a film: rather good - as a semi-documentary: poor
Review: ...

Many reviewer have rightfully praised some of the good value of this TV miniseries (even though, I would not rate this film so high, because it also comprises truly inferior sequences, such the Apollo-13 part - which, in the ligh of the Apolo 13 movie, could have been neither avoided nor successfully included - or the annoying Apollo-7 [or the majority of the Apollo-8] parts). However, what most, if not all, of those reviewers miss is to compare this film to reality. And that is the point where this semi-documentary fails.

My biggest concern is that this film is being just too patriotic on the account of treating people, who were responsible for putting Americans on the Moon in the first place, with dignity and fairness. First of all, where is the sole person who made J.F. Kenendy's dream come true - German chief rocket designer, Dr. Wernher von Braun - in the film? He designed the mighty Saturn 5 rocket (and most of its predecessors), which was the very point the USA could beat the Soviets (the Russians' Moon boosters kept blowing up, while the Saturn rockets worked flawlessly). Yet Dr. Braun appears in the 10-hour film for literally a few seconds - and only for mocking on him. It is shameless. Where is the 110-meter tall Saturn booster, the main attraction of the Kennedy's Space Centre Visitor Complex, the biggest and best rocket ever designed and built in the world, mentioned in this 12-part series? Nowhere ... while over an hour is dedicated to the building of the Lunar Module, which would have stayed on ground forewer, had NASA not had the Saturn rockets.

By the way, LEM was designed under the leadership of Canadian engineers (who had been involved with Canada's Avro Arrow superplane project), and even the legs of the descent module were also manufactured in Canada. Many Canadian, British and German engineers were involved with the NASA project - and even Hungarians [one of them designed the Lunar Rover] -, yet no other nation than American is mentioned in this 600-minute series. With all due respect, bored housewives contributed to the program a lot less than those people (first and foremost Dr. von Braun) -, yet the film erects a statue for them (which alone would be fine and righful), but completely forgetting about those "foreign" scientists and engineers, without whom NASA would have never been successful. (Just see, please, how NASA has been struggling ever since those "foreigners" had left out of the picture.)

Unlike - the much better, elbeit also inaccurate - 'The Right Stuff', this miniseries is virtually ignors the Soviets as well, who were the pioneers in space exploration, and Americans had followed their footsteps up until before landing Americans on the Moon. The space race was [righfully, I admit full-heartedly] won by the Americans - but the film ignores the fact that by not much. The first human-made device landing on the Moon was the Russian Lunik-9, the first earthly creatures orbiting the Moon were Russian turtles, and the first colour photograph showing earth-rise seen from the vicinity of the Moon was taken by a Soviet Zond [the unmanned Russian Lunar spacecraft]. Had the Americans finished the LM in time - and, as a result, had they skipped the Apollo-8 moon-orbit flight in order to take the LEM to Earth orbit right away - the Soviets might have beaten the USA by the first manned lunar orbit... But the Soviets were just playing safe to put animals aboard their lunar spaceship first, which resulted the loss of the race to the Moon. (On the other hand, NASA took a huge risk with sending a crew aboard Apollo-8 to the Moon; Had the O2 tank exploded in the Apollo-8's Service Module and not in the Apollo-13's [the faulty design had already been there], there would have been no way of saving those three astronauts, considering the absence of the Lunar Module that would serve as a lifeboat.) NASA gambled - and won ... but they do not always win {see the bad fate of Challenger and, most recently, Columbia... By the way, the Soviets tested their shuttle, Buran, unmanned + a Soyuz spacecraft - originally designed for taking cosmonauts to the Moon - could have been used as a lifeboat, had the Buran's [presumably 2- or 3-member] crew {who never flew in the reality} been in danger during subsequent flights. Compared this cautious approach to the American Space Shuttle program, please...})

I take my hat off, however, before Tom Hanks, who, at the beginning of one of the episodes, is trying to make a balance by stating: "Without Tsiolkovsky, Koroljev and von Braun America could have never gone to the Moon." It is very true - but where are those genetlemen in this long and detailed TV miniseries...?

P.s.: My concern is not what is in this 12-part TV series [becasue there is a lot, indeed] - but rather what is missing ... and due to the neglect of those important factors described above, I just can not enjoy this film...

Rating:
Summary: The Great Adventure
Review: In this stunning portrayal of the greatest period of exploration in human history--and it should be said that the Apollo program was nothing less than that--two great themes permeate the tale:

1. the compelling nature of the quest to voyage from the Earth to the Moon.
2. the power & value of human intellect and education

The concluding episode has a scene in which the character who links the episodes together, the fictional TV anchor Emmett Seaborn, observes--correctly, I think--that we went to the moon simply to take those awe-inspiring photographs; to prove to ourselves that we could do it. The other reasons for the Apollo program, to beat the Soviets, and the other political reasons and scientific, were secondary and perhaps even trivial when compared to the sheer compulsion to do it, a compulsion energized by what may have been President Kennedy's greatest single speech, given in 1962 at Rice University, the speech in which he challenged & committed the United States to send a man to the moon & return him safely to Earth by the end of that decade.

The other great theme, that of the value & power of the intellect, was wonderfully illuminated by the portrayal of the field geology lessons given to a number of the Apollo astronauts by one Professor Lee Silver of Caltech. It is not often that intellectual endeavors are portrayed in popular dramatic productions. But it was the geological exploration of the Moon which gave those voyages--especially the last few--invaluable scientific results and a focus of activity for the astronauts while on the lunar surface.

Viewing this series "From the Earth to the Moon" reminded me of how fortunate I am to have lived during the time of the Apollo missions, the truly great adventure in the history of mankind.