1989
Directed by Al Reinert
Documentary
For All Mankind is a spectacular film made up entirely of stock and TV footage from the actual 1969 Apollo space mission to the moon. The film uses the album "Apollo" by Brian Eno (with Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno) as it's soundtrack and although the LP was released 6 years before this film, it made for a perfect choice of music to accompany it. The beauty of this film is that it manages to tell the story from mission control, to take off, to travelling, to landing, exploring the moon and coming back home again, but without having to use talking heads, reconstructions or anything over than the actual footage shot at the time. Think of it as more of a compilation of footage than a documentary, but it works very well. There is probably a lot of footage here that may not have been broadcast at the time, and of course some of the most famous footage is included, such as the astronauts walking the moon and Neil Armstrong's famous "This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" speech. Despite the fact that I do not believe they actually went to the moon (in fact the footage here just reinforced that feeling even more), I still thought the footage was very beautiful and moving, and there are some spectacular shots of outer space and the earth. Whether you think it was a hoax or not is a moot point, because For All Mankind still manages to take you on a journey to outer space. 8/10.
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