Part One of Five...
Disc one of five : From the Earth to the Moon..
Before I begin I want to state a given fact: there is nothing uglier than an old woman doing the ugly cry..
...unless..
...it's an old woman bawling her eyes out over and over and over!
What that amounts too is the fact that I began watching my Christmas dvds of From the Earth to the Moon.
Of course they begin with the news that the Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first to fly in space and return. Quickly it goes to JFK's speech to land on the moon and return our astronauts safely. (the eyes teared up)
Our first shot was Alan Shepard..
I cried.. a lot.
That is because as I watched the program I was a teenager once more, listening to the radio broadcast over the High School Intercom.. so.. yep.. I cried.. again.
"Capcom, can you read?" (silence)
"Capcom, can you read?" (silence)
"Capcom, can you read?"
"I can read.. Capcom here"...
(bawl bawl bawl..) This is NOT going to be an easy 12 hours of dvds to watch!
The question now was: can we put a man on the moon in 9 years?... this is when the real science fiction turns into reality.
We were not long into the program when Kennedy is assassinated. (more tears.. I remember it all too well)
Russia jumps ahead again when Alexi walks in space for Russia before the USA does.
We follow it in 1965 with Ed White's 1st space walk. And by 1966 we did our first space docking.
Horror follows when in 1967 Grissom, White and Chaffee where killed in the fire while testing the module. If you are old enough to remember any of the original flights you remember knowing, without a doubt, that the danger was very real, that it would take a miracle for all these firsts in space not to have some tragedy happen... but it still shocks you when it does happen. (gawd, I'm tiring of crying!)
So, what next? the wives of the Astronauts that died give Deke Slater an Astronaut Pin that the the men were going to give him when they returned from their flight. (I think I'm about to get a headache from crying!)
Now I am thinking, wow.. we remember the big events (good and bad) but we forget the small things.... the human things that happened along the way while they were busy making history.
The first disc comes to a conclusion when they show an entire sequence of a lift off. From checking ever button and lever to locking the capsule and the countdown and the final lift off...
"Houston... we have cleared the tower". (bawl, bawl.. damn!)
The mess around the computer as I watch the first disc...
I didn't realize until I watched the first dvd that most of the information was taken from a book called A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin, which I so happen to have among my many books!
posted by DesLily | 1:07 PM
14 Comments:
AWESOME! Sounds amazing!
It really does sound amazing.
Aaaand I don't think there's anything ugly about anyone of any age crying. Just the other day, after crying like a little girl over The Time Traveler's Wife, I was actually thinking that I like it when stuff makes me cry. Like they say, it's cathartic and all that :P
Sheri: they've been my hero's since the space program began.
Nymeth: It's not pretty .. i had to pass a mirror.. trust me! LOL LOL.. oh crying always makes you feel more like the weight is off your shoulders.
I can't wait to watch these. I haven't seen the episodes in ten years or so.
hi becky: well if the first disc is any example it's really, well made! It's like part movie part documentary.. although I was still in HS when Alan Shephard did his 15 minutes in space and my son was but 2 1/2 yrs old when we landed on the moon.. i was there through it all.. watching this makes it all come to the front of your mind again.
I am really going to have to see about getting this...
hi kelly: if you are interested they are to watch. I don't know how I missed them when they were a HBO mini series.. oh wait.. I do know how I missed it.. it was 1998.. i lost my job and had to drop cable all together .. but i've seen many show similiar, just not a well done as this one.
I can't help but cry at stuff like this either! (It is not pretty when I'm watching the backstage Disney extras on the newer DVDs)
I want to watch this series so bad!! I never thought that this was the kind of thing that I would buy for myself, but after reading your review of the first disc, I think I'm going to. I've always been amazed by space travel ever since I was a little kid. This sounds so good!
Tink: I am mostly crying from the memories of it all. When I saw the blastoff's and splashdowns for real I cried..it was mostly a cry of relief (they made it!) I still can't believe that my life has gone by (as has theirs) and after all they did landing on the moon they stopped! and once the shuttle was tested still never went back!! I wanted to live long enough to see the possible space lab ON the moon..and to see us go BEYOND..
I know they are going back to the moon but I won't live long enough to really see the space program make those giant leaps again.
Chris: It's partly pieces of a movie they made and partly documentary. I think I am so strongly into it because, "I was there when it was happening". It is very well done though I will say that. What's sad is that I can't tell you names of todays astronauts. They are still in great danger but people take it as nothing special. They probably will once again when we go to the moon again. I'll never understand why we waited so long to go back. We need to be "comfortable going there" so that we can go beyond.
Sounds fantastic. I know I choked up a lot watching that other space series that was on recently and would no doubt do the same thing with this one.
oh yes.. I recall just barely -- standing on the side of the hill in middle of night -- waiting to see if we would see the first sputnik.
I was cold, I was scared, and I don't think we saw it.
I remember Shephards first hummingbird zip up and back into space.
Oh my, these truly do sound amazing! I can't believe I never heard of this series. Netflix, here I come.
carl: what really amazes me is how some people DONT get emotional over it!
Pam: yep I remember looking for sputnick too!
Debi: There are many documentaries about Gemini, Mercury and Apollo flights and I watch them all if I know they are on tv (usually the history channel) but this is one of those things HBO did very well.
Post a Comment
<< Home