My earliest memory is not of my first toy or the time I rode a bike alone. The most vivid, first memory I have is sitting on the floor in the basement in front of an old black and white, may have been colour, console TV. The cabinet was a beech colour and I recall a hole on the right side from smacking it to try a clear up the picture. The telecast was the first mission to land on the Moon, Apollo 11.
The images were sketchy at best, fuzzy, the horizontal line was constantly jumping and the sound cut in and out. It didn’t matter, these were pictures form the frikin moon! An event that I will, as most living at the time, will never forget. In fact the Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down on my birthday, July 24th, 1969.
This new film “In the Shadow of the Moon” captures a whole new side of the Apollo missions with the last remain astronauts talking about their personal experiences flying those dangerous rockets to the moon. The two thing that really stuck with me were the comments of Mike Collins, the Command Module pilot of Apollo 11 and the aftermath of living your life as a “American Hero”.
Mike Collins, the third tenor so to speak, was quite refreshing. Insightful and quick witted, it was a pleasure to hear his take on the space race and the ultimate goal of reaching the moon. At school, when we discussed history, he always seemed to get lost in the spot light of the landing Astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin Jr. When these brave adventurers left for the moon they were Air Force pilots, when they returned to earth, they were branded hero’s. That’s was a lot to live up to and, as discussed in the film, Neil Armstrong never really believed he could live up to the role and rarely, including this film, gives interviews.
Nevertheless a great documentary and I highly recommend it. Blast Off!
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