Review:            At first glance, In the Shadow of the Moon is that movie you know your grandparents will love, but you will find incredibly mundane. However, if you happen in on this piece you'll be pleasantly surprised by its quality and subtle uniqueness.  This is not your typical History channel conglomeration- though it does tend to venture within the borders of that well defined genre.  No, despite what you might think, this is a surprisingly good documentary developed by a director with heart and nostalgia for the Apollo program- and it’s apparent throughout the entire film. What I like about this movie is that it reminded me so much of the feel of Saving Private Ryan. No, not because it had epic battle scenes (or Vin Diesel), but because it stayed true to history by recounting personal stories. The narrators are the pilots themselves and through their words you actually can feel being there. This is great for people like me who weren’t alive when the first flights embarked into space, or when we landed on the moon, or when tragedies and failures struck. For people like me, this type of storytelling is what saves us from negligence and in this film it’s just beautiful. Despite this, I did have a problem with its pacing at times- not so much in the edited style or flow, but in its uneven focus on various missions. At first, the film takes a very Ken Burns approach- slowly analyzing every factual morsel, but then quickly breezes over the next 4 or 5 missions. Understandably, this was probably done to keep from boring audiences and also fitting the entire Apollo program into a nice round hour and a half piece. The most odd aspect of this pacing though is how Shadow of the Moon manages to sorta breeze through the Apollo 13 mission as if someone read about it through Cliff Notes. I know most people can already recite most the facts (thank you Tom Hanks), but I was really looking forward to hearing more personal accounts from that mission. And considering the documentary is presented by Ron Howard (director of Apollo 13), I was left slightly disappointed in this oversight. Of course, by comparing this to Saving Private Ryan, I might have already ruined the film for most of you because you’ll expect some high paced, creative piece of work. But you won’t find flash here, just a lot of substance, like the Pittsburgh Steelers (and yes, I’m saying that because football season is here). The anime-generation might be bored with the slow shots and the historical-based narrative, but if you have the patience to sit through a slower moving documentary, you’ll definitely enjoy this. Review by Matthew Abshire Informative: 4- some missions breezed over, but it emphasizes the ones that needed to be emphasized Entertainment: 2.5- I can promise you some people will be bored with this, but they are lame. Technical: 4- I love when films use the subjects to narrate their story, and this film uses them well. Overall: 3.5- it’s not ground breaking, but it’s worth your time, especially if you’re a history buff.
 
Format: DVD Year: 2007 Running Time: 100 Min Distributor: Discovery Films, THINKFilm Producer: Duncan Copp Director: David Sington Date Reviewed: 7-10-2008 Story: Discover the history and glory behind the Apollo space program through interviews with the brave astronauts who lived through this landmark chapter in world history. Devoted to President John F. Kennedy's goal of sending a man to the moon, the NASA project pushed the envelope of what was humanly possible. Although successful, the program also experienced several failures, one of which resulted in the tragic deaths of three astronauts (NetFlix).