DVD 360 mins

In Collection
#266

Documentary

Spacecraft Films

Mankind's greatest adventure is remembered for the digital age. The DVD format changed the way we look at movies and especially TV series, with massive complete-season sets. That concept is spectacularly taken one-step further with Spacecraft Films' definitive collections of the Gemini and Apollo space missions, stuffing in nearly every scrap of TV transmissions and on-board footage. The three- to six-disc sets use the full functions of the DVD format; see a liftoff in six different angles (some remixed with 5.1 sound) or listen to a mixture of air-to-ground communications, official NASA narration, or post-flight debriefings, most often carefully synched to the exact moment of footage seen. Like any good research paper, every bit of footage may not be interesting, but taken as a chronicle of history, it's irreplaceable.

The two-man Gemini missions are the forgotten cousin of the space program; Mercury (The Right Stuff) and Apollo (From the Earth to the Moon) have been chronicled in popular books and film for years. This 6-hour set rights the wrong, illustrating how the ambitious program (10 missions in 1965-66) developed most of the key attributes to go to the moon (including long-duration flight, space walking, rendezvous, and docking). Every single bit of onboard camera footage is here, and yes, that includes periods of fumbling cameras and poorly lit sequences. But it also allows for some of the most gorgeous space footage ever shot, starting with Ed White's Gemini 4 spacewalk (America's first), which one can now view in its entirety. Another high point is the rendezvous of flights 6 & 7, with a soundtrack that combines the air-to-ground communications and post-flight news conferences. Each mission is broken down with footage from the spacecraft preparation, launch, on-board film, and recovery. Unlike other Spacecraft sets, there's an original documentary, an hourlong survey of Gemini written by Andrew Chaikin (author of A Man on the Moon). The documentary certainly whets one's appetite for the rest of the set, but perhaps only the true space junky will want to watch footage from two unmanned missions, a lengthy look at the archaic instrumental panel, and a flight or two that seem like a repeat of a previous mission. --Doug Thomas