Apollo 11 review

‘Apollo 11’ directed by Todd Millar is a short thrilling documentary which follows the journey of 3 brave astronauts in their attempt to make history by being the first men on the moon. ‘Apollo 11’ show the views and reactions of the public, launch control staff and the astronauts in the short time frame of 1 hour 33 minutes. In the documentary ‘Apollo 11’ Todd Millar intends to use cinematography, sound, atmosphere and pace to build up suspense and tension. The director wants you to feel as if you are there in July 1969 witnessing the major moment in history. Although, repeating the same few camera angles can only go so far, the director has good intentions to make you feel part of the experience but in my opinion these intentions fall short when presenting an informative documentary such as ‘Apollo 11’. I feel Millar failed to include the audience in the experience as there were no major cliff hangers other than the built up of take off, in addition to this, Todd Millar also did a poor job in showing the audience other significant moments from the take off such as the astronauts emotions.

Director Todd Millar attempts to use sound techniques throughout the short documentary to create suspense and tension, to do this Todd Millar uses skills such as diegetic and non diegetic sounds, diegetic sounds are where you can see the source of sound on screen an example of this is the constant chatter of the crowd at the start of the documentary before take off and the celebrations after take off where in both scenarios we see the source of sound, whereas non-diegetic sounds are sounds where the source of sound cannot be seen on screen an example of this is the commentating done by Jack king. Miller did this to make the viewers feel part of the experience as we were able to hear basically everything the 3 astronauts heard during their mission. These were the best executed sound techniques Todd Millar presented us with, as we could experience the excitement with them. But shortly after, the excitement died and we were suck hearing the same emotionless tone during what should have been a gripping account of adventure. Another example of non diegetic sounds is before the launch we were able to hear the pulse of a heartbeat that is continuously getting stronger and stronger as the seconds countdown to lift off, this is a significant moment in the film because it shows how the astronauts were feeling in that moment, their hearts were racing.

Cinematography techniques are immensely important in the film ‘Apollo 11’ because they show everything from genuine emotions to what life was like while in space. However, these intentions were not meet as we could not see the genuine reactions of the the astronauts, wasn’t this a documentary centered around these three men making history? A variety of shots were used in the film ‘Apollo 11’ to explain what life was like for the three men, the use of these shots were effective while they lasted, however, became repetitive very quickly. I believe that a very small percentage of the footage collected from the mission to the moon was actually presented in the documentary, this demotes the film as without the different shots and scenes the film becomes boring and difficult to watch. The only shot that stood out to me during the film was when the lift off was slowed down, this let us take in the fact that this moment was about to change history, Todd Millar intends for this moment to be a significant in the film and perfectly creates suspense and tension for us viewers.

Pace and atmosphere plays a critical part in how the viewers feel towards the directors film, I believe Todd Millar was smart to keep this a short sweet film. Unfortunately 1 hour 33 minutes still feels like a drag. This film went through the events of July 1969 at a steady pace, I think Millar had strong intentions to keep the audience interested However, I feel the many repetitious uninformative shots stretch out and lose the audiences attention. For example dull recurring shots of launch control were placed in to create a longer film. The atmosphere throughout the film was visibly cut in two ,the first half of the film is the anticipation and worry of the members in the control room showing the sincere expressions and nervous chatter while after the successful take off the atmosphere changed to relief and joy throughout all spectators.

To conclude I do not believe the intentions of director Todd Millar were meet as the absence of suspense and tension was detrimental to the overall feel and experience of the short documentary ‘Apollo 11’. The first mission to the moon was supposed to showcase “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” however this short documentary lacked the feeling of involvement and did not meet the standards or exceed the expectation of how such an important moment in time should be displayed.