Level 1 film review – Jacob Field

Notes on 3 chossen aspects in detail > Cinematography > Sound > Pace/Atmosphere

Notes covering the director’s intention specifically, relating to your 3 chosen aspects and overall intentions.

evidence references from the film – choose some scenes that clearly show what your opinion is – tied to your chosen aspects.

Introduction

In this film “Apollo 11” Director Todd Douglas Miller is undertaking an immense assignment. To recreate the moment that for many people changed their lives. The world stopped and watched as Buzz Aldrin Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong touch down on the surface of the moon and claim this newfound territory as ours. He is given the task to recreate these moments and more, to show new-found angles and give another breath of life to this ever amazing story. I feel he did great in key moments and he pulled you in and held you there while important events occurred. He gave the facts and he told a story, one that will be told for generations to come.

A brief overview of the plot.

It all starts when JFK makes a speech on a warm sunny day September 12th 1962. He promises that he will safely put a man on the moon and bring him back alive by the end of 1960s. On the 17th of July 1969, a mission began one that would change how we looked at the moon forever. A once thought unreachable dream was accomplished. It showed that all is possible and you really can “reach for the stars” but did this movie betray that? Did it show the dream as they imagined it? Did it tell the story? Does this film do it justice? Well, that’s for you to decide but I believe it does. When the rocket takes off you can feel it. When each segment detaches you slide further towards the edge of your seat. As they land you are in awe, the pictures look like they were pulled from Cgi shoot. Then as they fall back through the atmosphere your heart stops… the parachute pulls, It catches. They live. The thing about this movie is it’s hard not to know the outcome, it’s probably one of the most well-known stories in the world and if you’re watching the movie you’d probably already know the key facts, They went there. They lived. But do you really know? Did they live? Did they make it? This is what happens when watching the film you start to second guess your self. This is why I think Todd Miller has done such a good job with this film. You don’t just see them take off you don’t just hear them take off you can feel it. You can feel the nerves you can feel the true enormity of this journey. You can look at that screen and feel like you went to the moon and back.

Cinematography

As I talked earlier about how this film displays some awe-inspiring shots especially during the moon landing senses. They look unreal as if they were made in a CGI studio. I feel like this film uses some amazing cinematography especially in scenes such as that of the lanch and the landing on the moon. For example, in the lanch scene Director, Todd Miller exposes you to the great enormity of the event. He shows the crowds far and wide he gives close-ups of expressions on faces displays the 1000s apon 1000s of digital handheld cameras on display. Then after all this, they turn the view around to show the rocket barely visible like a little white pencil standing up off in the distance. As the launch is starting to begin and the countdown gets underway he does something that I enjoyed. The cameras flick from the rocket to crowd rocket, control room, rocket. It goes back and forth and shows the nerves the excitement but it always shows the faces laser-focused on one direction this is of course the rocket. At one point it switches to the control room and shows all the workers looking out the window in anticipation of the launch, while all their machines just sit behind them on empty desks. When the rocket starts its long-awaited take-off the colours are just amazing. There were close-ups of the 5 exhaust pipes fully engulfed in a thick golden flame. This flame darkens as the rocket rises to dark orange with black lines and chunks flowing through it kind of shrapnel looking. This close up is extraordinary and makes you feel so close as if you are right there. And then off sales the rocket through the near-perfect baby blue sky. 76 hours later they would enter lunar orbit and soon land on the moon. On the way there we saw some exeptonal shots from within the spacecraft watching pieces detach as they made their way to the moon. But once the space ship had landed and Neil Armstrong took those first fateful steps out on to the surface of the moon ” That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, then the cinematography that followed was amazing. Switching from old fuzzed black and white tv to breathtaking stills. In some photos taken from the spacecraft there looked to be a golden coloured foil looking like tin foil that was frozen in place. It showed the big suits with the ever astonishing refective helmet and the red white and blue of the American flag standing tall its in place. As I mentioned before this scene was truly breathtaking and all-round exceptional. These shots put you on the moon it places you on this floating space rock in the middle of the dark abyss. It really looked like a dream it was surreal, unreal it seemed merely impossible yet it was right there in front of me I was there, or at least that’s how I felt and it was amazing.

Sound

This movie had some great attributes to it and as I see it sound was one of them. As I said before you feel like you are right there in the close up this is very much hammered home by the fact the sound increases by 10 you can feel the noise. I considered ducking undercover the first time I watched this scene cause I could have sworn there was an earthquake. Every time I watch this scene it makes me jump a little cause of how intense it really is. This movie isn’t any type of horror but that first bit of the lanch scene truly is a jump scare And its the sound that causes that through and through. One aspect that I really enjoyed throughout this entire film and one that Director Todd Miller used exceptionally was the space control voice overs. They were just doing their job through the intercom but it was like they were made for the part. They were running us through each part of the occurrences step by step and this was another factor to this film that keep providing that theme of putting you there. Eugene Francis Kranz is an American aerospace engineer, a former fighter pilot, and a retired NASA Flight Director and manager. And when watching and listening to this film it sounded like he was talking right to you. That you were the astronaut and he was right there with you each step of the way.

Pace/Atmosphere

As I’ve said before the atmosphere is intense throughout the film. But what about when it’s not. These moments in films can leave you bored and just waiting for something interesting to happen. And this film nearly pushes you to that point of this suspenseful boredom. This occurs once they have concerned a goal no man or woman had ever done before this was landing on the moon, first steps etc. They had done it all it seemed like the mission was over they had done it. There was a sense of joy and just calmness to the whole situation. but the thing was the job was not finished the mission was not over. There was still one more hurdle and a very important one and that was making it home, surviving the free fall through the earth atmosphere. They were happy there were celebrations as they had made it to the moon and even though they were relaxed about it the astronauts knew there was still a job to be done. This clam period of this film is like a break in the madness but it doesn’t last for long. Cause shortly after this its time for the blackout phase, This blackout phase could last for 2 minutes or it could last for 10. This is scary the unknown they could die as they enter the atmosphere but we wouldn’t know that for at least the next 10 minutes. This sense skyrocketed from being chill and relaxed and with a sense of accomplishment, to all of a sudden that intense fear that this maybe this is the end maybe they don’t survive, has the story been wrong all this time. It takes you away it gives you a sense that its all over and then bam it brings you back in takes you back to all the tension of the previous parts of the film and this sticks with you all the way to the point of touch down on the Pacific Ocean.

a conclusion that restates your opinoin

When you watch this film you are embarking on a journey. You hop in that space shuttle and you feel pins and needles as Jack King starts to count you down for take-off, and you feel pure relief as you end your fall through the atmosphere with a safe landing. And like the real apollo 11, this was a ride, and a fun one. It put you in the astronaut’s place, it showed you the ups and downs the highs, the lows, it gave fact and set in stone a wonderful story for the generations to come. So thank you, Todd Miller, till the next dream up for recreation we’ll have to stick with Apollo 11 for now.