The Last Man on the Moon (2014)

“You’ve got to have a passion, a love for what you’re doing or you shouldn’t be doing it.” – Eugene Cernan

Number of Times Seen – 1 (11 Sep 2016)

Brief Synopsis – Documentary about the life of one of the twelve men who walked on the moon; Eugene Cernan who was the final man to step off the ground there 44 years ago.

My Take on it – For as long as I can recall, I have been a fan of the history of the US space program.

I used to know which astronaut flew on each of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions and even knew numerous tidbits about each mission.

This film gives us the rare opportunity to hear about the programs from the perspective of one of the men who were deeply involved in the missions.

Despite being in his mid 80’s Cernan is still quite articulate and very candid about his life during his astronaut years.

We get to hear from many of the other men who also journeyed to the moon and some of the stories are truly amazing to hear.

It’s extremely important that these heroic men tell us their stories because of the fact that manned space missions have been halted and there aren’t many astronauts from that era still around.

Astronauts were once thought of as heroes (or even some kind of rock star back in the 60’s) eventhough they are also flawed human beings, but nowadays the profession unfortunately no longer is talked about in heroic ways because it has become more routine than unique.

It’s truly a pity that the space flights have been stopped because there really is so much more out there for us to still explore.

Bottom Line – Being a fan of the early days of the US space program, it was a real treat watching this. To get to hear Cernan’s perspectives on the space program was amazing. One can learn so much about the program and the men from the insight revealed here by Cernan and his colleagues. It’s too bad that being an astronaut has become routine and the lack of manned flights is irksome because there really is so much more out there to explore. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The film, nine years in the making, is based on Cernan’s 1999 memoir of the same title. The film received the Texas Independent Film Award from Houston Film Critics and the Movies for Grownups Award from AARP The Magazine (From Wikipedia)

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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