{"id":678,"date":"2008-03-05T22:09:44","date_gmt":"2008-03-06T03:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/05\/for-all-mankind\/"},"modified":"2022-10-09T09:48:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T13:48:18","slug":"for-all-mankind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/for-all-mankind\/","title":{"rendered":"The atmospheres and soundtracks of Al Reiner&#8217;s Apollo Missions documentary For All Mankind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It was a weird experience to finally see the original film for the soundtrack to which I&#8217;ve listened to countless times. Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois&#8217; <em>Apollo: Atmospheres &amp; Soundtracks<\/em> is a gorgeous piece of work, and very much colored my expectations of what the film would be. Having long pictured a largely abstract compilation of otherworldly lunar footage, I was surprised to find <em>For All Mankind<\/em> a more straightforward documentary than what was already in my head. (Bits and pieces from the compilation album <em>Music for Films III<\/em> also appear.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike <em>In the Shadow of the Moon<\/em>, the 2007 feature documentary on the same subject, <em>For All Mankind<\/em> exclusively uses original footage taken during the Apollo Missions, much of it by the astronauts themselves. The absence of new narration or footage rightly places the emphasis solely on the achievements of the original participants. But a drawback is that the interviewees on the soundtrack are not identified (the Criterion DVD edition includes an option to display subtitles identifying the speakers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have little to add to Matthew Dessem&#8217;s excellent review on <a href=\"http:\/\/criterioncollection.blogspot.com\/2006\/04\/54-for-all-mankind.html\">The Criterion Contraption<\/a>, or to my own thoughts on <a href=\"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/in-the-shadow-of-the-moon\/\"><em>In the Shadow of the Moon<\/em><\/a>. Three small observations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>I was completely ignorant that NASA first began spacewalks during the Apollo missions. I was under the impression they began during the later space shuttle missions. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that NASA would test spacewalks in orbit over the Earth before attempting to step out of a capsule onto the moon, but: Wow!<\/li><li>The astronauts were very conscious of Stanley Kubrick&#8217;s <em>2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>. Each astronaut could bring one cassette tape to play on a portable deck, and one chose Strauss&#8217; &#8220;Also Sprach Zarathustra&#8221;. Another describes seeing the moon surface up close as being like something from <em>2001<\/em>.<\/li><li>Due to the film&#8217;s nature of being comprised of original footage, there&#8217;s perhaps too much of the astronauts goofing off in zero-G, and not enough of the spectacular lunar footage. But it goes to show that even the pilots selected for being the most sane and calm people in the word still turn to excited kids when playing in outer space (with the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lisa_Nowak\">rare exception<\/a> to prove the rule).<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a weird experience to finally see the original film for the soundtrack to which I&#8217;ve listened to countless times. Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois&#8217; Apollo: Atmospheres &amp; Soundtracks is a gorgeous piece of work, and very much colored my expectations of what the film would be. Having long pictured a largely abstract compilation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[1475,1753,109,207,108,27,926,1130],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-stars","category-movies","tag-1475","tag-al-reiner","tag-brian-eno","tag-criterion-collection","tag-daniel-lanois","tag-documentary","tag-moon","tag-nasa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/for-all-mankind-feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-aW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":657,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/in-the-shadow-of-the-moon\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":0},"title":"The Apollo astronauts strut the right stuff in Ron Howard&#8217;s In the Shadow of the Moon","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"February 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In the Shadow of the Moon may not be the most radical or revelatory documentary ever made, but if the point was to get out of the way of some true American badasses and let them tell their story, then it should be counted as a success. The DVD edition\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"In the Shadow of the Moon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/in-the-shadow-of-the-moon-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/in-the-shadow-of-the-moon-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/in-the-shadow-of-the-moon-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/in-the-shadow-of-the-moon-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/in-the-shadow-of-the-moon-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1434,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":1},"title":"Daniel Lanois Maximizes the Room in Here Is What Is","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Daniel Lanois is a unique musician, as gifted a singer-songwriter in his own right as he is a collaborator and producer. I originally came to recognize his name after finding it listed in the credits of many key items in my music collection, including Peter Gabriel's So and Us, U2's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/daniel-lanois-here-is-what-is-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4321,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/a-clique-of-cranks-room-237\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":2},"title":"A Clique of Cranks: Room 237","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"August 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Room 237 is not about The Shining. It is about those lost in its labyrinth. For better or for worse, Stanley Kubrick is one of the most potent gateway drugs for young cinephiles, and for many the early obsession proves lifelong. The addictive nature of his films is partly due\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Room 237","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/room-237-shining.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/room-237-shining.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/room-237-shining.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/room-237-shining.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/room-237-shining.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5222,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/genesis-together-and-apart\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":3},"title":"The documentary Together and Apart tells the genesis of Genesis","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The venerable band Genesis reconvenes to tell their own story, from progressive rock outsiders to mainstream pop success story.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;2 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Genesis Sum of the Parts","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-sum-of-the-parts.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-sum-of-the-parts.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-sum-of-the-parts.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-sum-of-the-parts.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/genesis-sum-of-the-parts.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":324,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/yo-la-tengo\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":4},"title":"Yo La Tengo perform live to Jean Painlev\u00e9&#8217;s Science is Fiction in Prospect Park, 2006","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"July 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Hoboken institution Yo La Tengo performs a live score to several of French filmmaker Jean Painlev\u00e9's underwater documentaries. Interestingly, English subtitles indicate the films were apparently not silent in their original form, with narration and perhaps scores of their own. So not only is the audience's experience of the films\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Science is Fiction","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/science-is-fiction.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/science-is-fiction.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/science-is-fiction.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/science-is-fiction.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/science-is-fiction.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":188,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-dork-report-for-april-3-2006\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":5},"title":"The Dork Report for April 3, 2006","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Careful, Doctor, you might sprain that eyebrow. Hot on the heels of CNN.com's redesign comes that of NYTimes.com. The constant: catering to wiiiiiide monitors. The winner: the latter (if for no other reason than extending the redesign to the interior pages). Tomorrow's a good music day: Gorillaz Live at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Dork Report&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Dork Report","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/dork-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Dork Report","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/dork-report.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6165,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/6165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}