DVD Review: Apollo 11 an Uninteresting Flashback
The BBC's coverage of the Apollo 11 mission does not make a memorable DVD.
'Apollo 11: A Night to Remember' -
Acorn Media
Apollo 11: A Night to Remember is a DVD I hope to soon forget. As a lifelong nerd and astronomy lover, I have long dreamed about the stars and the mysteries they hold. The key to unlocking those mysteries lies in exploration -- by man as well as machine. Ever since I was little I have found myself watching the launches -- and the tragedies -- on television. So when this DVD chronicling the BBC's coverage of the Apollo 11 mission came my way, I got very excited. My only memories of Apollo 11 are of my father telling me about what it was like to watch it on television when he was young. This was my chance to see what it was like to watch it on TV. Unfortunately, the footage did not age well. This is a nostalgia piece, pure and simple. It is a collection of all the important footage from live broadcasts on the BBC at various stages of the mission. Narrated by the original host (through a terrible aged lisp), it is meant to bring back those familiar feelings of sitting in front of the television, unsure of what was going to happen next, dreaming of the moment man would first walk on the moon and see what it was like. But as someone who never watched the BBC's original footage, the complete lack of nostalgia turned this into a very dated, dull walk-through of the events of the mission. The worst part of the disc is the minutes of filler stories, very important at the time, explaining in very simple, very general terms how rockets work, how the crew flies it, and what conditions they expect on the moon. It is a handheld explanation of 40-year-old technology that most school children understand today. And it is D-R-Y. While I am a big fan of importing British culture, cinema, and television over here to the states, especially on DVD, this is one of those discs so specific to a time and place that I find it hard to believe there will be much interest in seeing how another country covered such a big day. Unless you are a hardcore space exploration history nut, very nostalgic about the moon landing, or watched this footage live on the BBC at the time, there is very little need to check this one out. It is simply far too narrow for most audiences. The disc comes with two special features -- an episode of the BBC's Sky at Night and a short biography of the BBC's astronomer Sir Patrick Moore. Apollo 11: A Night To Remember is available now from Acorn Media. Most Popular Stories
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