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For All Mankind
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Criterion Collection Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (11th August 2009). |
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The Film
 40 years after man landed on the moon, The Criterion Collection celebrates this historic achievement with a re-issued release of the acclaimed documentary "For All Mankind" (which is also celebrating its own anniversary, 20 years ago this film was released). While the film is a terrific account of its subject and stands as one of the best documentaries ever made, it was largely out-shadowed by the immensely popular "Roger & Me" released that same year, the film that rocketed Michael Moore into stardom and placing his film as the highest earning documentary released at that time (earning $6 million more than "For All Mankind's" humble $770,312 box office take)... come Oscar time "For All Mankind" would loose the golden statue to "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt" but over the last 20 years it remains much more relevant and far more impacting than those two other films. Proving that although marketing may prevail, a truly well crafted film based on a universal theme will stand the test of time. "For All Mankind" follows the Apollo space missions throughout their incredible endeavors launching into space and following through to the moon landings. Filmmaker Al Reinert culls thousands of hours of NASA footage into a well paced 80 minutes that miraculously takes us through the program and immerses viewers with first hand accounts from the astronauts that were apart of these historical achievements. The footage features some awe-inspiring footage of space and also taken from the surface of the moon. The footage is what truly makes this documentary worth the price of admission, Reinert does the tedious job of cutting it together into some sort of narrative, an impossible task considering the sheer amount of footage taken, but he manages it. There's no voice-over narration, no talking heads, by most accounts it's a unique presentation. The astronauts original recording and radio communications are played over the mission footage from inside the capsules, to outside and also at mission control. There are no indications that this was an "American" achievement, this sort-of anonymity lends to the film's themes and to the overall achievement as belonging to all of mankind. I was impressed with the level of access on display here, for space enthusiasts it's an absolute must watch experience. "For All Mankind" was simply a pleasurable viewing experience, a well structured and presented documentary, if you saw the moon landing originally in 1969 this film will reignite your sense of wonder and awe with space travel, if not then it will more than likely generate a new sense of awe. I for one have a newfound admiration and respect for those astronauts who risked their lives so that humankind could take that one giant leap into the stars and beyond. "For All Mankind" comes highly recommended, whether you're a conspiracy theorist or not...
Video
Presented in the film's original ratio of 1.33:1 full screen and mastered in high-definition 1080p 24/fps using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The film culls video and 16mm footage, while this possibly the best presentation the film is likely to ever get thanks to The Criterion Collection, the limitations of these stocks becomes painfully obvious in this HD format. While the footage is nothing short of brilliant the film exhibits heavy grain at times with some softness running through, yet is much better than I expected it would look. These are easily forgivable considering the source in which this footage came from and its age. Colors look decent and skin tones appear accurate, and I was happy to see that Criterion cleaned up the image relatively well removing most dirt, scratches and specks. Overall it's exactly the type of image you'd expect and for the effort they put into in I give them a decent grade to boot.
Audio
A single soundtrack is presented in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround presented in 48kHz/24-bit. The audio track takes the original theatrical audio and presents here for the first time in lossless audio. The audio track is rather limited considering the dialogue consists of recording and radio communications, it's the film's ambient sounds and score that really adds the depth to the overall soundtrack. Brian Eno's haunting score is subtle but adds weight to the footage. It's not a complex or particularly aggressive mix aside from the rocket boosters firing but the track is immersive nonetheless. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired only.
Extras
The Criterion Collection has released this edition with an audio commentary, a series of featurettes, audio recordings, launch footage and a liner notes booklet. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is the high informative feature-length audio commentary by director Al Reinert and astronaut Eugene Cernan, who was on the crew of Gemini 9 and Apollo 10 and 17 missions. This track originally appeared on the Criterion laserdisc and previous DVD edition. Recorded in 1999, the two comment on the history of the program, they comment on the footage as Cernan comments on his experiences in space and on walking on the moon (he was the last person to walk on the moon). The tone of the track is at times dry and sullen but worth listening to. "An Accidental Gift" is a featurette that runs for 32 minutes, in this making-of we get an in-depth look at how director Al Reinert was able to look through the immense amount of footage and cut together this film. It explores the NASA footage and why the took so much footage and the use for it. The purpose was to make sure things worked and they could archive the missions. Many of the images were accidental, as the astronauts who found themselves in space would shoot footage from their perspective. A lot of the footage has never really been seen outside of NASA crew and Reinert was allowed to cull the footage and make this film and his initial genesis on how this all came about as we get interviews with not only the director but also with the editors and astronauts who also shot footage of themselves in space among others. What fascinating is how NASA managed to get some impressive shots and how the film was recovered. It's an excellent supplement. "On Camera" is the next featurette which runs for 20 minutes 35 seconds, as mentioned in the review of the film, this documentary doesn't have voice-over narration, but instead audio recordings. Here we get a compilation of on-camera interviews with the astronauts, fifteen in total as they talk about how the Apollo program was the pinnacle of the space program. Some of the interviews are taken from other films and Q&A's and are collected for viewing here. There's a common theme to the interviews about the importance of the achievement as they share their personal memories and perspectives. This marks another well made supplement that adds further value to this disc and to the film itself. Next up is "Paintings from the Moon" feature, in the introduction which runs for 7 minutes 33 seconds we see astronaut Alan Bean takes us through his pilot years and wanting to be an astronaut, only to retire and paint. His subject, the moon. It's an interesting clip but the previous two featurettes were much more interesting. After the introduction, we see his artwork as he provides a narration about the pieces, of which there are 32 as we get a look at his painting style as well with a runtime of 37 minutes 53 seconds. Following that are a collection of 21 "NASA Audio Highlights" audio recordings, culled together into a clip that runs for 6 minutes 45 seconds, these are original sound bites from the first ten missions of the program. There's some incredible recordings here taken as these events were taking place and are an archival treasure. The quality of the recordings are pretty scratchy but worth listening to. The final video extra on this disc is "3…2…1… Blast Off" which is a collection of launch footage from NASA'a five different rocket boosters; the Mercury-Redstone Rocket, Mercury-Atlas Rocket, Gemini-Titan Rocket, Saturn 1B Rocket and the Saturn V Rocket, all the launch footage includes original audio from mission control. Total runtime is 2 minutes 35 seconds. Rounding out the extras is a 28-page liner notes booklet that features an essay by critic Terrence Rafferty entitled "Fantastic Voyage" and an essay by the film's director Al Reinert entitled "A Trip to the Moon".
Overall
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