Chasing the Moon

Since its first episode aired on October 4, 1988, PBS's "American Experience" has done a great deal to advance the cause of looking at our nation's history with a fresh perspective free from ideology and distortions. And in 2019, the series took a look at what is arguably the greatest technological achievement not only in American history, but really in the whole history of the human race: the race to the Moon, which the United States won on July 20, 1969.

First shown on PBS in the week before America celebrated the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, CHASING THE MOON is a three-part look at how America in general, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in particular, marshaled the full measure of our technological and industrial might to achieve what, before World War II, was considered pure science fiction, the stuff of Jules Verne and Fritz Lang. Avoiding the use of "talking heads", but relying on the narratives of those involved in the building of the spacecrafts and launch vehicles, and those involved in taking them towards the Moon, writer-director Robert Stone does an extremely good job of taking us through the circumstances of the "Space Race". Part One takes us from the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, which scared the world in general, and America in particular, senseless, through President Kennedy's initially reluctant but later enthusiastic advocacy of manned space flight, to his assassination on November 22, 1963. Part Two carries us through the Gemini program and the beginnings of Apollo, to that horrible day of January 27, 1967, when Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were asphyxiated in a flash fire on the launch pad in a pre-test of Apollo 1. And finally, Part Three takes from how Apollo was resurrected from that tragedy, to the trans-lunar flight of Apollo 8 in December 1968, and finally to the triumph on the Sea of Tranquility on the night of July 20, 1969.

But while it celebrates the triumphs and mourns the two tragedies (JFK's assassination; the Apollo 1 fire) that marked this whole section of our history, CHASING THE MOON doesn't ignore the fact that this was happening at a time of immense political, social, and structural upheaval, with the Civil Rights movement, and, unsurprisingly, the Vietnam War. There was considerable dissension among people of the worthiness of spending tens of billions of dollars on space during that time. But tens of billions more dollars were being spend on a foreign fiasco that resulted in 58,000 American soldiers and four million Vietnamese civilians paying the ultimate price, and America being severely divided from that point forward, while the achievement of Apollo 11, and the history of the American space pogrom as a whole, resulted in us learning just how small we are in the context of an immense universe. If anything, Apollo 11 humbled not only Americans and Russians alike, but also the entire world, into understanding what it means to be living on this planet.

At a time when the Damien Chazelle-directed 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic FIRST MAN and the brilliant Todd Douglas Miller documentary APOLLO 11 fueled renewed interest in what was seemingly one of the most overanalyzed events in the history of the world, CHASING THE MOON added to that, and did so in a way that PBS does best. That moment at 10:56 PM Eastern Time on the night of July 20, 1969, when Armstrong took that one small step for Man and one giant leap for Mankind, is an event to be cherished; and CHASING THE MOON furthers the notion that it is also an event that can never be forgotten.

A wonderful and at times deeply moving documentary that captures so much of the detail and feeling of what it was like to live through those exciting "moon" years.

The amount of footage from the period is also quite remarkable, and this is used very skillfully to tell a complex and engrossing story.

For those of us old enough to remember (I was just a boy at the time) it also brings back a lot of amazing memories. For those who did not experience those times, it should perhaps be even more enlightening and entertaining.

Well worth sitting through all 6 hours!

"Chasing the Moon" comprehensively covers the history of spaceflight from the closing days of WWII through the Apollo program in a way you've never seen before. It brilliantly blends five narratives. The recollections of the astronauts themselves, insights from NASA administrators and engineers, extensive broadcast TV clips and rare NASA footage, an appreciation of the Russian space program, and the politics that empowered these human and technological achievements. Viewers are transported through the era in a way that allows you to feel that you are there, watching it all unfold live before your eyes.

The six hour film is presented in three parts, so there is a bit of a commitment involved, but you will see oodles of rare newsreel footage that even a space junkie like me has never seen before in a documentary of this type (and I've seen 'em all). Despite its length, "Chasing the Moon" is riveting. Broadcast over PBS on three consecutive nights earlier this month, the film is currently available for viewing on the PBS website, or through the PBS app. Ten out of ten stars.

Covers the period from, and beginning with, launch of Sputnik until, and including, the Apollo 11 mission. Lots of excellent contemporary footage accompanied by current-day voice-overs from people who were involved back then.

Includes some detail about the programs that preceded Apollo, Mercury and Gemini, plus some of the politics involved in the decision making. Also, one of the very few documentaries trying to pay due credit to the creator of the Saturn V beast, Wernher von Braun.

Very well made, highly entertaining and strongly recommended to anyone having only the faintest interest in the history of space flight.

I always enjoy documentaries that just lay out the basic facts and avoid sensationalizing actual events. In the case of the 1960's space race between the Russians and Americans both countries faltered which had the most absolute deadliest of consequences. Astronauts were sacrificed for the space race and wives and children lost their husbands and fathers.

Why I mention the nostalgic approach was LIFE magazine had an exclusive with some of the astronauts of the Apollo missions and we were invited right into the astronauts family homes as the wives and children watched on their black and white television sets the flight missions along side their fellow astronaut families and family parish priests. What Life magazine provided to the astronauts for this exclusive was a $100 thousand dollar life insurance policy to the astronauts family in case of death in space. This is a bet you would rather LIFE magazine never had to pay out on.

This is a must see three (3) part documentary series that provides exceptional historical coverage of the earliest space missions culminating on the first landing of man on the moon. Who would have ever thought this was possible even in the year 2020?