For All Mankind

Whether it was synchronicity, coincidence or clever planning it seems rather appropriate that Al Reinert’s film FOR ALL MANKIND should be released on DVD/Blu-ray on the same day as Duncan Jones’ MOON, and STAR TREK. Whereas MOON is a fictitious look at the future possibility of the utilising the Moon’s resources, FOR ALL MANKIND is a document to NASA’s exploration of our lunar satellite.

Made up of NASA’s archive footage of their Apollo lunar missions from 1968 to 1972, at the height of the space race with the USSR this is a simple recounting of what happened, through the eyes of those who went there – maybe. Of course, this film does not address conspiracy theories or the real purpose behind the moon missions, it merely shows the footage shot by the astronauts with their comments at the time as well as their recollections of the events.

Personally, I have always leaned towards the sceptical view of the moon landings and this film doesn’t do a great deal to convince me otherwise, or answer any of those nagging questions. While it all looks very impressive, with some amazing footage that left me marvelling at the engineering that went into building and launching the rockets, it also left me thinking what a waste of resources and scientific endeavour. The space race may have diverted the attention from the two superpowers annihilating the planet, or at least not immediately, but it didn’t really achieve anything of lasting value “for all mankind”. I’m sure there are plenty of people that would argue with me on that point, and I accept that there were all manner of technological advances made through the research carried as part of the space programme, but there are still wars, poverty, disease and starvation over great swathes of this planet (without even mentioning all the pollution) that could have been resolved with all the money pumped into those futile lunar trips.

Despite my views on the space programme, I still found the film totally fascinating and, as is clear from the previous paragraph, stimulating. For anyone interested in science, the history of mankind or even sci-fi this is definitely worth adding to your collection, even if you are sceptical like I am. And for all those sceptics, this high-def transfer of the original 16mm footage is perfect for studying all those nagging anomalies.

FOR ALL MANKIND is released as part of Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series, and is available now from Play and all good retailers.