Filmstalker Review: In the Shadow of the Moon

I'd already seen In the Shadow of the Moon on the big screen and absolutely adored it. A documentary that is filled with passion and great emotion as well as some stunning original photography which makes you think that they had high definition back then.

The documentary interviews almost all of the surviving astronauts who have been to the moon as part of the American space program, and gathers their personal experiences of what it was like to make the incredibly dangerous journey.

I've already reviewed the film on Filmstalker - In the Shadow of the Moon (Filmstalker review) - and it's a superb film, really. One which I happily gave five stars too and added to the Filmstalker Recommends list.

...brilliantly crafted...passionate and inspiring...

That's what I had to say after I saw the film in the cinema, and I still feel that after watching it again. It's a very powerful and emotive film that really brims with the amazing human passion that fueled the space race.

16:9
Upscaled to 1080p you would think it looks even better, but there's something about viewing this film on the big screen with it's epic out of this world shots that gives it an extra dimension. However that's no real loss as the DVD version is superb to watch and conveys the same power and emotions, as well as looking amazingly crisp, clean and deep on high definition.

DD 5.1
The audio is good but it's mainly the score that makes use of the speakers with most of the audio being of the talking heads and voice overs. So there is a strong atmospheric score, but there's not a real need of the full 5.1.

Behind the Shadow - 57 minutes of unseen footage, Scoring Apollo - 10 minute featurette on the soundtrack, Trailer
Behind the Shadow - 57 minutes of unseen footage
There's a ton of extra footage, and a lot of it genuinely interesting and entertaining, something you don't always expect from additional footage supplied on a DVD. Although you can see that the film tells a much better story without some of these extra moments and side stories, they are great to listen to and provide more great human insight into these out of the world stories.

Scoring Apollo - 10 minute featurette on the soundtrack
An interesting featurette which shows you some of the scoring behind the scenes and the thoughts behind the music.

In the Shadow of the Moon is a superb film with some truly stunning pictures and stories from incredible individuals who seem super human and completely down to earth at the same time. The DVD treatment is fantastic and I can only imagine how it looks on fantastic Blu-ray, unfortunately for now it's only available on HD-DVD. This is an inspirational and moving DVD that carries a unique slice of human history on it.