For All Mankind is the classic 1989 documentary directed by Al Reinhert and assembled from footage shot on the Apollo lunar missions.
From 1968 to 1972 US astronauts flew in to outer space and to the moon. They were told by NASA to shoot as much footage as they could on 16mm cameras.
However, all the footage remained in the vaults until Reinert persuaded the space agency to let him make a documentary.
Along with and editor Susan Korda, Reinhart sifted through over six million feet of film footage, and 80 hours of NASA interviews to create this truly remarkable film.
Interestingly the narrative movement is like one space mission, even though it is actually a collage of all of the Apollo lunar landing missions.
The archive footage is remarkable and neatly inter cut with the voices of the astronauts themselves including Jim Lovell, Michael Collins, Charles Conrad, Jack Swigert, and Ken Mattingly, sourced from interviews and mission recordings.
The soundtrack was originally composed in 1983 by Brian Eno and released as Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Because of delays the film didn’t surface until 1989 and by then some of the album tracks had been replaced with pieces by Eno and other artists.
It is available on DVD (£19.99 RRP) and Blu-ray Disc (£24.99 RRP) with the following features:
- A new, restored high-definition transfer, supervised and approved by director Al Reinert
- Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, remastered from the original sound stems
- 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
- A gallery of Bean’s artwork, inspired by his life as an astronaut, with commentary and a filmed introduction
- NASA audio highlights and liftoff footage
- Optional on-screen identification of astronauts and mission control specialists
- New optional English subtitles (SDH) for the hearing impaired
- A luxurious booklet, featuring essays, credits, stills, a new interview with Brian Eno, and more
For All Mankind is out now on DVD and Blu-ray Disc from Eureka/Masters of Cinema
> Buy it on DVD and Blu-ray Disc from Amazon UK
> For All Mankind at the IMDb
> Find out more about the Apollo lunar missions at Wikipedia
