The Wonder of It All (2007)

“All of us came to NASA to … because we were good at flying high-performance airplanes, we were good at doing the things in the best airplanes that there were, okay? And suddenly the space program shows up, so now we get a chance to do those things in a spaceship, which is even more complicated and even more difficult, even more dangerous, so that appealed to all of us. – Alan Bean

Number of Times Seen – 1 (1 Feb 2020)

Brief Synopsis – Documentary that looks at the way that the US astronauts who experienced the moon landings were personally affected by their journey.

My Take on it – As a fan of the US space program and the Apollo missions in particular, I was quite excited to watch this film.

The chance to watch interviews with 7 of the 12 men who set foot on the moon back to back was a great experience especially when we have the ability to compare and contrast each of their responses to similar questions along the way.

This film gives us a very fascinating perspective in the idea of space travel and te lunar landings because we get to hear from 7 of the men who made the journey.

The film discusses various subjects with each of these men and it’s truly enjoyable learning how vastly different their viewpoints are on very similar experiences.

They are all quite candid about their thoughts, opinions, experiences before, during and after their space flights.

They also discuss the importance of space travel and it isn’t done in a preachy way since they all truly believe how important their journeys were to mankind and not just on a personal level.

What was amazing is that despite the fact that these men all made a very similar trip, each of their experiences are quite diverse and it’s quite fascinating watching them tell their stories.

They also explain why things should continue because they weren’t merely on a trip to gather “space rocks” but also learn much more about the solar system and the world we live in.

I have seen interviews with some of these men beforehand, but the idea to put them all together like this truly works wonders in describing the importance of what they did and why we should continue to do it.

Bottom Line – Fascinating film that gives us a very unique perspective on the idea of space travel. The idea of discussing these various subjects with the astronauts themselves is quite an enjoyable experience because they are quite candid about their experiences, their opinions and most importantly their ideas of why it was so important and imperative for us to have made this journey. Despite interviewing 7 men who all made the same trip, it’s great learning that each of them came home with a completely different kind of story which proves that the journey was worthwhile and was more than just an opportunity to “collect” rocks out n space. Having seen interviews with some of these men before, this film was still able to add so much to what we can learn from these few men who were able to accomplish something that hasn’t been repeated in the almost 50 years since they made their journeys through space. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The film is composed of first-person interviews with seven of the 12 Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon (Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, John Young, Charlie Duke, Eugene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt) (From Wikipedia)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10)