Genre Grandeur – From the Earth to the Moon (1998)

For my sixth and final review for this month genre grandeur -Space, I present you with my review of what I believe to be the very finest production ever made about the Apollo space program, the HBO miniseries by Tom Hanks entitled From the Earth to the Moon (1998)

“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. ” – President John F. Kennedy

Number of Times Seen – Between 5 and 10 times (April-May 1998,  at least 5 times on DVD and 11 Sep – 24 Sep 2014)

Brief Synopsis – A miniseries that chronicles the American quest to land a man on the moon showing the comprehensive detail and manpower needed to achieve this goal before the Russians did.

My Take on it – As much as I love Tom Hanks’ miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010), his greatest miniseries achievement in my opinion is this movie.

This movie shows in a very detailed way how the race to the moon was won by the US because of the thousands of people who worked together as a team.

This series, appropriately resonates with that same feeling of teamwork with its comprehensive exploration of each mission and uses details so accurate that we feel as if we are traveling with these space explorers on their journeys.

Of the HUGE cast, only one actor appears in all 12 episodes and that’s Tom Hanks as the narrator. A few actors appear in a handful of episodes but in general, each episode has a distinctly different cast but still follow the same general theme: teamwork helped this goal succeed.

In addition, every episode tells a different part of the Moonshot puzzle and each is presented in a unique and interesting fashion.

I’d love to give u all a synopsis of each episode but I don’t wanna ruin anything for those less familiar who would like to see what this is all about.

The special effects are incredible and really make you believe that you are watching things that happened in outer space and on the lunar surface.

I also love the theme music of this movie.

Check it out here:

I have always maintained that I could never make a list of my top ten favorite movies.

That being said, watching this movie always gives me inspiration and an indescribable feeling of pride in what was done and I can imagine watching this many more time over and over even despite its complete running time of 720 minutes (12 hours).

Here’s the trailer:

Bottom Line – One of the most elaborate productions every assembled. Vast and diverse cast shows that it is teamwork that achieved the goal of reaching the moon and not just the individuals. The ability to create unique and interesting ways to tell each mission from a different perspective is truly unbelievable. This is one of my favorite movies of all time and I can watch it over and over. Very Highly recommended!

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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