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For All Mankind [Masters of Cinema [DVD] [1989] starring: Jim Lovell, Russell Schweickart, Eugene Cernan, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong

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Publisher: Eureka Entertainment LTD
Release date: 16th November, 2009
Media: DVD

Format

• Dolby
• PAL

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Average rating - (more reviews)

Rating: - Excellent Film but only the Bluray edition is in 5.1

As others have said, this is indeed a superb record of the Apollo mission, but the soundtrack is NOT in Dolby Digital 5.1

I have written to the manufacturers and received the reply that:
"All DVD copies of our edition of FOR ALL MANKIND only have the 2.0 track. We made an error at the authoring stage and the sleeve erroneously states that the 5.1 is included. For this we apologise.

We are unlikely to be re-authoring the DVD because it has not sold in huge numbers, so we shall simply be altering the sleeve when we repress to remove mention of the 5.1 track.

The 5.1 track is included on the Blu-ray edition which was released at the same time, and appears there uncompressed."

Amazon, however, have been superb in allowing me to return the DVD, which I will be replacing with the BD version as soon as I can - the film is THAT good!!

Rating: - Wonderful images but . . .

As far as the images and film sequences are concerned, this is a wonderful DVD. There are a host of iconic scenes covering all aspects of the mission from launch, through the Lunar tranverses to the landing back on Earth.

The only thing that annoyed me watching this title was the editing. Depending on who well you know the Apollo story, you may notice a large number of cases where the editors have taken the soundtrack of what the astronauts said and placed it over another piece of film. This has been done time and again and it can be somewhat distracting if you have read enough about the missions to spot the differences.

On the plus side, there are a couple of extra features added to the DVD. There are clips of the launches of the first five man rated NASA rockets and an interview with Al Bean and his paintings. He shows a number of his Moon painting and tells the story behind the image.

Overall, great to watch but may annoy some Apollo "geeks"!

Rating: - Great Film but beware the DVD is not in 5.1

I have always loved this fantastic film, with Brian Eno's music evoking an emotional atmosphere to, quite frankly, unbelievable photography. However, the DVD is not 5.1 as stated on the sleeve. I have written to the manufacturers, but so far no reply...................

Rating: - Wonderful

Beautifully put together in an elegant and unobtrusive fashion. With very little commentary to distract from some of the most stunning images captured by astronauts on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. Al Reinert has pieced together some compelling footage from many different space flights that flow smoothly into one complete film and focuses on the experiences and emotions of those select few on the Apollo program.

For me the most compelling part of the DVD is the making-of documentary that shows, in a sense, how lucky NASA was to capture these iconic shots and the amount of care that goes into maintaining and restoring the stock in the NASA archives. I always wondered how they got the film back from the cameras during the rocket separation stages and Reinert explains the extraordinary lengths NASA went to in order to retrieve that footage for us to see.

The other extras, including NASA's sound archive of radio transmissions and lift-off footage are also a welcome addition to the DVD.

Both the film and making-of documentary contain some wonderful anecdotes from the astronauts, Reinert and the NASA archivists that together make this film an essential part of any documentary collection.

Rating: - The closest you'll get to being there

I've been looking for a copy of this ever since I dumped my old VCR - along with an old VHS recording - and figured I'd take a punt on the Blu-Ray version as it wasn't much more than the standard DVD.

Having seen some other supposed HD documentaries covering this period I wasn't holding out much hope for more than a cleaned up video transfer but Criterion have done a stunning job here - this has to be the best quality I have seen of the Apollo era. Obviously there is some low quality footage - in particular from some of the on-board handheld cameras & TV transmissions but for the most part everything else is superb (presumably much coming from the 16mm scientific camera's that most missions carried).

For All Mankind presents the Apollo story in a unique way - bringing together clips from all the missions to combine and tell the story in the form of a single trip to the moon and back. Accompanied by occasional inciteful quotes from the Astronauts involved and underscored by Brian Eno's wonderfully atmospheric soundtrack this is a 79 minute journey that you really feel you are accompanying those 24 fortunate men on.

If you are looking for a documentary with in depth narration then look elsewhere you won't find what you are looking for here - there are countless formal documentaries out there (try NASA's Greatest Missions as a start).
For All Mankind is something else - a grand story told as such - and that's what makes it so special.

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