Film

In the Shadow of the Moon

Nine of the twelve men who walked on the moon, sitting in armchairs decades later, talking about what it actually felt like. David Sington's documentary pairs those interviews with immaculately restored NASA footage and skips the mission-control tension for something closer to wonder and reflection. It's for anyone who wants the moon landing as lived experience, not just historical event.

TMDb rating7.6

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Apollo 112019

Todd Douglas Miller's film uses only archival footage, no narration, no talking heads — just the mission unfolding in newly discovered 70mm clarity. The purest, most immersive companion piece imaginable.

But No interviews at all means none of the warmth or hindsight; it's spectacle over reflection.

Apollo 11 poster

For All Mankind1989

Al Reinert's earlier, more impressionistic astronaut documentary, cut together from every Apollo mission into one composite journey, scored by Brian Eno. Genuinely hypnotic.

But The dreamlike editing sacrifices clarity about which mission is which — it's mood over information.

For All Mankind poster

The Right Stuff1983

Swaggering, funny, three-hour account of the Mercury astronauts and the test pilots who preceded them, with the same mix of danger and showmanship this documentary hints at.

But It's a dramatization with actors, and its length and ensemble cast take patience to settle into.

The Right Stuff poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Trip to the Moon1902

Both are about the moment humans first imagined, then achieved, standing on the moon — one is the myth, the other the memory.

Georges Méliès's fourteen-minute silent fantasy imagined the moon landing sixty-seven years before it happened — the same dream this documentary shows made real, but as pure theatrical wonder.

But It's a silent-era curiosity with no plausibility whatsoever; charming rather than moving.

A Trip to the Moon poster
More like this (7)

Apollo 131995

Ron Howard's account of the mission that nearly killed its crew turns procedure into pure suspense. Jim Lovell, interviewed here, lived through exactly this.

But You already know how it ends, and the film leans hard on Hollywood polish over documentary rawness.

Apollo 13 poster

First Man2018

Damien Chazelle's Armstrong biopic goes interior where this documentary stays exterior — grief, isolation, the toll behind the stoic image. A haunting companion.

But It's deliberately withholding and cold; some found Gosling's Armstrong too closed-off to connect with.

First Man poster

Hidden Figures2016

The mission control side of this story, told through the Black women mathematicians whose calculations made the flights possible. Warm, crowd-pleasing, overdue.

But It smooths some real history into an easier, more triumphant shape than the record supports.

Hidden Figures poster

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood2022no page yet

Richard Linklater's rotoscoped memoir of growing up in Houston during the space race, told from a kid's-eye view. A tender, nostalgic sideways glance at the same era.

But Barely about the mission itself — it's mostly suburban Americana with the moon landing as backdrop.

The Astronaut Wives Club2015no page yet

A soapy but sincere look at the women left on the ground, managing fame, fear, and the press while their husbands became myths. Fills a gap this documentary doesn't touch.

But Tonally lighter than its subject deserves, and cancelled after one season, so it ends abruptly.

The Dish2000no page yet

Same mission, same triumph, but told from the anxious, ordinary ground crew rather than the men in the capsule.

A gentle Australian comedy-drama about the small satellite dish town that nearly fumbled the Apollo 11 broadcast to the world. All the stakes, none of the gravity.

But It's slight and parochial by design — a comfort watch, not a monument.

Moon2009

The astronauts here repeatedly describe the strange, mind-altering solitude of the moon; this film takes that feeling and lets it curdle into something stranger.

Duncan Jones's spare science-fiction drama follows a lone astronaut near the end of a solitary lunar contract, and turns the isolation these real astronauts describe into something eerie and existential.

But It's fiction, slow-burning, and psychologically bleak — nothing like the documentary's warmth or awe.

Moon poster

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Recommended by

The Right Stuff, The Martian, Apollo 11, For All Mankind, Zathura: A Space Adventure, Thunderbirds, A Trip to the Moon, A Grand Day Out