I have been a fan of manned space exploration since I was a kid and some of that came from my love for Star Wars and Star Trek. I read Final Frontier magazine and read about the current and future plans of space exploration. I learned about Apollo from the fire accident of Apollo 1 which claimed its crew on the launch pad during a test and even read John F. Kennedy's speech about setting the goal of getting man to the moon by the end of the decade. That dream would be complete with the Apollo 11 mission. The first documentary on Apollo 11 was MOONWALK ONE directed by Theo Kamecke. NASA commissioned Kamecke to make the documentary six weeks before the launch of Apollo 11. MOONWALK ONE is underwhelming as Kamecke decides to go off on a few tangents that don't relate to Apollo 11, but lots of 65mm footage was shot and now some of that footage is seen for the first time as the footage was scanned with 4K to 8K resolution.

APOLLO 11 is a remarkable documentary that manages to present the Apollo 11 mission like it was happening today without using talking head interviews or a narrator. It uses never before seen NASA footage scanned from 65mm film footage shot back then mixed with audio edited from hours of audio recordings from the mission. The first 30 minutes showing the hours before and during the launch are the most awe inspiring part of this film. I wish I could have seen APOLLO 11 on the big screen because the Saturn V footage would be incredible to see on the big screen as possible.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
Sadly, there isn’t much for extras besides the theatrical trailer and a short featurette on the making of the documentary (APOLLO 11: DISCOVERING THE 65mm). I wish there was a longer making-of detailing how the project came about and the efforts taken to make this fantastic documentary and maybe even an audio commentary. I know some fans of this documentary say it was a missed opportunity not releasing this on 4K UHD (but maybe they will later). Playing before the main menu are previews for other releases from Neon. There is even a code to download and stream a digital copy of APOLLO 11.

FINAL ANALYSIS: APOLLO 11 is a must see documentary for fans of space exploration as it presents the coverage of APOLLO 11 in a way no documentary has ever done before. I hope APOLLO 11 is revisited with more bonus features and a 4K UHD release for fans of 4K.

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