DVD Review: 8 Days: To the Moon and Back

8 Days: To the Moon and Back
(DVD 629.454 Eig)

Educational and entertaining at the same time, 8 Days is a docudrama. It takes archival video and still footage from CBS news and NASA, and recently declassified cockpit audio-recordings from the Apollo 11 capsule, and combines them with performances by three British actors as Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, to recreate the 8-day journey of Apollo 11 from the launchpad to the the moon and back home. With 2019 being the 50th anniversary of this moon landing mission, many of the details this documentary covers may have already gotten some detailed coverage. But I’ll have to admit — though I watched a lot of other TV specials, and the Apollo 11 documentary that was released to theaters earlier this year, there were a few bits in this one that I’d never heard before, particularly the chit-chat between the astronauts as they flew. These are re-created here with the contemporary actors lip-synching (very effectively) to the original cockpit recordings!

The special effects shots of the Apollo 11 craft components in orbit around the moon add to the “magnificent desolation” that they experienced. My only complaint is that the actors who portrayed the three astronauts didn’t really resemble the actual men in any way whatsoever, so any time they were on screen, I wasn’t really sure who was playing who. Otherwise, highly recommended. It’s only 55 minutes long, and I wished it was a full two hours!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the documentary Apollo 11.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official 8 Days page on the BBC web site ]

See a number of other Apollo 11-related reviews in the July 2019 Staff Recommendations

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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