For All Mankind

In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy's challenge of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth". No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Breathtaking both in the scope of its vision and the exhilaration of the human emotions it captures, For All Mankind is the story of the 24 men who traveled to the Moon≈told in their words, in their voices, using the images of their experiences. Criterion is proud to present Al Reinert's award-winning documentary in a new special edition.

The focus of the documentary is on the human views of the space flights, and the original mission footage is provided along with the voices of the astronauts, from interviews and from the actual mission recordings. Among those providing narration are Jim Lovell, Michael Collins, Charles Conrad, Jack Swigert, and Ken Mattingly.

For All Mankind was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1990.

In the DVD commentary, Reinert explains that he made the film after learning that huge amounts of footage shot by astronauts had been archived by NASA without ever being seen by the public.

Reinert also explains that although the documentary purports to show a single moon mission, it is in fact a collage of images from all six missions. Furthermore, images are often presented out of context: the images of rocket stage separation are test footage shot during earlier missions; a shot used to represent trans lunar injection is in fact footage of re-entry; and the images of a spacewalk are from a Gemini mission, not Apollo.

DVD Special Features:

- New Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix
- Audio commentary by producer-director Al Reinert and Apollo 17 commander Eugene A. Cernan, the last man to set foot on the Moon
- Paintings, with audio commentary, by Apollo 12 and Skylab astronaut Alan L. Bean
- NASA audio highlights and liftoff footage
- Optional onscreen identification of astronauts and mission control specialists
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

For All Mankind is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1. This digital transfer was created from a 35mm low contrast print. The new 5.1 mix was created from the original audio stems.



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