Magnificent Desolation

We are a mere 6 weeks or so away from marking the 50^th anniversary of NASA’s brightest moment-- landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.  In my view, the successful mission of Apollo 11 was one of the three great technological feats of the U.S. government of the 20^th century, along with defeating the Axis powers during WWII (ending it with the Manhattan Project) and wowing the world by ejecting Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991 in 100 days, while taking on the world’s 3^rd largest army and suffering fewer than 200 casualties.   Of these major technological accomplishments, Apollo 11 remains the signature nonmilitary achievement of the U.S. government.  In fact, the technological prowess of the United States was so respected that simply the threat of putting the full weight of the U.S. government behind it was enough to cause the Soviet Union to buckle when Ronald Reagan announced his visionary Star Wars program (33 years later, we’re still not there yet).

The film Apollo 11 is a documentary tribute to that magical flight of half a century ago.   It is uncluttered mostly raw color footage (some new) with no narration save some news reports and chatter between the astronauts and ground control in Houston.   The color footage is amazingly clear and contrasts with how I remember these events as a boy—grainy, shadowy black and white images.

The film sticks to the journey itself and the astronauts and does not provide much historical context, except for JFK’s famous statement of goals and a background news story of Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne.  But those of us of a certain age are aware of the turbulence of the time.  The divisions over the Vietnam War were growing.  This was only five years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.  Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King had been slain the year before.  But despite all these fissures, the nation could pull itself together and unite in this purpose.  One of the striking images of the film was the blocks and blocks of people stretched out to witness the launch, and the expressions of joy and wonderment as the spacecraft lifted into the sky.

The singularity of purpose was evident in all of communications and the role of each person was acknowledged in this team effort.   President Nixon called the astronauts and proclaimed that it was “the proudest day of our lives.” Ground control remarked to Michael Collings after re-docking, “Not since Adam has a human known such solitude as Michael Collins.”  And Neil Armstrong, upon return, gave “special thanks to all those that built the spacecraft.”

The three astronauts that made the journey—Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins largely stayed out of the public eye afterwards.  Neil Armstrong in particular was almost reclusive and contrasts with today’s celebrities and heroes that have book deals and run the talk show circuit.  Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf did book tours after Desert Storm.  Even genuine hero Navy Seal Robert J. O’Neill  (slayer of Bin Laden) put out a couple of books and went on the talk show circuit.  Michael Collins disappeared from the national consciousness almost entirely and only Buzz Aldrin has maintained a public profile (I saw Aldrin speak at the Printers Row Lit Fest a couple of years ago).

The astronauts returned to a ticker tape parade.  But soon thereafter, moon landings became pedestrian, and aside from the near disaster of Apollo 13, public interest in space waned.  The Space Shuttle program was marred 25 years later by the Challenger accident.  And then we lost another crew over Texas in Columbia.   Manned space flight ended under the Obama administration.  NASA ossified became embroiled in some controversies with climate change and Obama’s insistence on including Muslim contributions to science in its purpose.  Then last year, the film First Man, a biopic about Neil Armstrong conspicuously omitted any showing of the American flag. 

Since Apollo 11, the U.S. government has had some spectacular failures.  We lost the war in Vietnam. The War on Poverty was an expensive bust.  The War on Drugs has been largely lost.   We are retreating from the war in Afghanistan and accomplished very little despite the lives and treasure lost in the second war in Iraq. 

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But for one shining week in July 50 years ago, the U.S. government showed the world that it could rally resources and accomplish something magnificent in the time period that JFK established.

Apollo 11 is a stunning film that will take you back to that week, raw and unvarnished and without an agenda.