A Ken Burns documentary this is not. After searching through countless reels of film shot during the Apollo missions, Al Reinert composed this artful, trance-inducing, awe-inspiring tone piece on man's first and only journeys to the moon. Accompanied by unidentified dialog from the nameless men in the air and on the ground, the Brian Eno-composed score washes over you as some of the most startling and beautiful images NASA produced during its trip to the moon are presented without contemporary talking heads or fictionalized drama to get in the way.
The film will be inherently dull to most viewers, since there's no plot, little dialog, and only the barest of narrative momentum. But taken as the kind of movie it is meant to be, For All Mankind is extremely successful, one of the most innovative and daring documentaries I've ever seen. This is a film that is entirely focused on the spectacle of human achievement, nothing more, nothing less. Its confidence is stunning, even if it pales in comparison to the moment in history it so artfully presents.
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