Product Description

In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy’s challenge of: landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Al Reinert’s documentary, For All Mankind, is the story of the twenty-four men who traveled to the Moon, told in their words, in their voices, using the images of their experiences. Forty years later, it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema yet made about this earth-shaking event

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by producer-director Al Reinert

• DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack

• Audio commentary featuring Reinert and Apollo 17 commander Eugene A. Cernan, the last man to set foot on the Moon

• An Accidental Gift: The Making of: For All Mankind, a new documentary featuring interviews with Reinert, Apollo 12 and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean, and NASA archive specialists Don Pickard, Mike Gentry, Morris Williams, and Chuck Welch

• On Camera, a collection of excerpted, on-screen interviews with fifteen of the Apollo astronauts

• New video program about Bean’s artwork, accompanied by a gallery of his paintings

• NASA audio highlights and liftoff footage

• Optional on-screen identification of astronauts and mission control specialists

• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film critic Terrence Rafferty and Reinert

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4201 in DVD
• Brand: IMAGE ENT.
• Released on: 2009-07-14
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Full Screen, Special Edition, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 80 minutes

Features

• FOR ALL MANKIND BLU-RAY (BLU-RAY DISC)

Amazon.com
A Special Message from Jonathon Turell, Criterion CEO

I was nine when the Apollo 11 Eagle landed on the moon. I remember vividly watching it on a small black-and-white TV at sleepaway camp that summer of 1969. I’ve been hooked on the space program ever since. Just about twenty years ago, a friend told me he had seen a rough cut of a new space movie and I should see it. I got a tape and watched For All Mankind for the first time. It was unlike anything I had seen before, and I knew that I wanted to be a part of it. I met Al Reinert and we became friends. Janus Films helped to finish the film, and I became an associate producer as we completed the movie. For All Mankind was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary—losing out to Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt. It played festivals around the world. There was a special screening for NASA and the astronauts in Galveston, Texas, and the film showed at the Air and Space Museum at the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the moon landing.

We started working on the laserdisc release of For All Mankind before the film was complete, and I traveled to Houston to meet Al and interview Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean for inclusion on the disc. Bean’s comments were so good that Al recut the film to include a wonderful story about piloting the lunar module in orbit around moon. Meeting one of the astronauts who walked on the moon is still one of the greatest thrills of my life. Last year, when we began working on our Blu-ray release of For All Mankind, we got in touch with Bean again and asked him to participate. He happily agreed to update the feature on his paintings and also to sit down and talk with us about a subject I had become very interested in—science versus art. I wanted to explore the question of whether the astronauts (or the people at NASA) realized they were shooting some of the most artistic images ever recorded (and now some of the most famous) or if it was really all about moon rocks and beating the Russians. This second meeting with Bean didn’t disappoint; he says some wonderful things that are included on the disc. When we finished taping our interview session, he gave me a ride to lunch. The famous Apollo 12 Corvette is gone, replaced by a truck to carry his paintings, but that ten-minute ride will stay with me forever. He talked about walking on the moon; I talked about what movies I like. It didn’t seem quite parallel—for him it was an interesting conversation, for me, it was an audience with a hero.

Over the years, I think I’ve seen every film and TV miniseries about the Apollo program (at least twice), but for me For All Mankind still stands apart. It is unique in its poetic approach and ability to capture the pure emotion of the greatest journey of our time.

Customer Reviews

This Re-Issue Soars!
This is a re-issue of a previous release by the Criterion Collection but features a brand new transfer of the film, which looks fantastic. All of the previous extra material has been carried over.

There is an audio commentary by filmmaker Al Reinert and astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to set foot on the Moon. Reinert provides some insight into how the film came together. He went through thousands of hours of footage and managed to put together an 80-minute film. Cernan shares some of his experiences about what it was like to be an astronaut at that time.

New to this edition is "An Accidental Gift: The Making of For All Mankind," a 30-minute retrospective documentary. Reinert always wanted to see this outer space/Moon footage on the big screen and this was the impetus for the film. He got his start as a journalist covering NASA in the early 1980s. Through his contacts he got access to their film archives and found footage that had never been shown. This is an excellent look at how For All Mankind came together.

Also new is "On Camera," a compilation of on-camera interviews Reinert conducted with 15 of the Apollo astronauts. In the film itself only the audio is used and it is nice to put a face to the voice.

"Painting from the Moon" is an updating of an extra on the original edition. After retiring from NASA, astronaut Alan Bean became a painter and this is a gallery of his work with commentary.

"NASA Audio Highlights" is a collection of 21 soundbites from the first ten years of the American space program. Some of the most famous words have spoken during this time, including Neil Armstrong's immortal words.

Finally, there is "3, 2, 1 . . . Blast Off!" a collection of launch footage of various rockets taking off for outer space.

Giants Among The Stars
Without a doubt, this is one of the finest Blu Ray discs I own, not just for the fascinating and well done documentary, but for the total immersion in the Apollo Experience that new transfer (both video and audio) provides. It is STUNNING; there is no other way to describe 80 minutes of pure perfection.

The film that was brought back from the moon, original film elements, were used in the creation of this documentary to begin with when it was first compiled into an intriguing film some 20 years ago. With the advent of the new digital remaster, the film looks COMPLETELY different; so much so that my 12 year old daughter thought that the scenes shot on the Rover were special effects! Imagine her surprise when I told her that was actual moon mission footage, and it was as real and as untouched as if she herself were to take it using a camera. I don't think she ever grasped that fully. In any case, the video is INCREDIBLE.

The audio of this wonderful film is provided by the voices of the astronauts and their machinery as well as an ambient soundtrack by Brian Eno. The music fully immerses you in its wondrous and enveloping score. The new transfer of the Eno audio soundtrack really cannot be adequately described...it is truly a masterpiece, because it becomes part of the film; it IS the film...it literally feels like part of the missions represented in this documentary. You are surrounded by these voices and machines and this incredible, incredible score by Eno...and it is truly an experience.

I've had the film on DVD for a number of years and it has always been one of my favorites (these guys were all my heroes growing up in the 60s and 70s and I'm a NASA buff). With the new Blu Ray presentation, Criterion has pulled out all the stops. As I watched, I was just shaking my head at just how phenomenal a disc this is; that it could be SO much better than my original DVD copy (which was no slouch either, and I have an upscaling DVD player too that made it look great...but NOTHING like THIS!)

With the 40th Anniversary of our first steps in the playground of the Universe upon us, this Blu Ray makes you realize just how much more there is so see out there and why we need to return to the stars...and how much we need to take care of this fragile world (and each other) as well. Highly recommended...and highly inspirational.

Looking back at Apollo across a lifetime
The presentation is impeccible, but the soundtrack by Brian Eno nails it.

During the Apollo flights (1968 - 1972), we all felt part of the space age. When this documentary was released in 1989, Apollo still felt like it was just yesterday. Now in 2009, with Eno's ethereal music in the background, a feeling of the surreal overtakes me as I look back half a lifetime ago.

Buy this documentary for the interviews as well as the expected accompanying NASA pictures and movies - you won't be disappointed. It complements other more recent offerings, such as "In the Shadow of the Moon" and "The Wonder of It All". But only this film captures the feeling of what it is like to have lived through it and now look back.

It was an age, and now we shake our heads in wonder.