Chasing The Moon' - The Film Depiction of The Space Race Era

The documentary, “Chasing the Moon”, date made is unknown but aired on July 10, 2019. This documentary was a three part event that covered the space race and the politics of space involved during the 1970’s. The documentary aimed to portray the meticulous political calculation, visionary impulses and personal drama of everyone during the peak of the space age. This was all done while reconstructing the tensions that the United States, Russia and the rest of the world were experiencing during the edgy period of the cold war.

Chasing the Moon does a really good job in expressing the significance of this monumental moment in our history. It does so by giving the viewers primary sources form journalists that covered the space race from the very beginning; whilst using first hand news coverage of people and events during the 1970. Their emotional description were filled with marvel and admiration through the very beginning of the film. This created a captivating immersive experience throughout the film. The documentary also explains the importance of the man who kept America vigilant with his tense history but also advanced the United States during the space race, “Wernher von Braun”. All of these perfectly illustrated the significance of this historical event through mainly personal experience.

The documentary does an exceptional job in convincing its audience its information was correct and accurate. It gives only primary visual depictions of the actual historical events from the 1970’s such as news clips from NBC news, radio broadcast, presidential or political speeches. All while, firsthand experienced journalist, narrate and explains all of these events that unfolded during the era of space exploration. Secondary sources historians, John Logsdon and Roger Launius unraveled the complicated meaning of the politics of space. The film devotes lengthy segments of the documentary with excerpts from 1960, Columbia pictures “I aim at the Stars”. Which is used as a secondary source to emphasize Wernher Von Braun’s tense past.

One of the historians John Logsdon narrates most of the documentary alongside other historians. John Logsdon is the Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and was former member of the NASA Advisory Council. Giving Logsdon strong ethos within in the field of this documentary as a historian. Logsdon claimed in the documentary that during the space age the Kennedy administration was very media conscious. Ultimately televising and radio broadcasting everything that occurred during his time in office. This claim was also made in an article by Logsdon titled “John F. Kennedy’s Space Legacy and Its Lessons for Today”.

Chasing the moon was without a doubt an eye opening documentary to watch. Reminding viewers about the significance of the space race even during the most complex of times. The rivalry between two countries was portrayed perfectly and gave their sense of urgency. The use of old live news coverage and personal interviews gave the film a really nice edge in absorbing viewer’s interest. This gave the documentary a real advantage by producing credible, legitimate feelings and thoughts that were experienced during this period.

My thought on the three part documentary is that it holds value and portrays the significance very well. Everyone should always be reminded about the time the entire world unified itself to but a man on the moon.