Welcome to my blog!
On July 20, 2009, we'll be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the first Moon landing. I thought it would be nice, every week, to highlight books, DVDs, etc. that capture those magical days of the Apollo moon missions.
This week's entry is the highly recommended Tom Hanks' HBO production From the Earth to the Moon. This is a 12 hour miniseries covering the Apollo missions. I saw it when it was first released on DVD. I remember it being very well done (it was nominated for 17 Emmys, winning 3, including Best Mini-Series). I found it very emotional - for some reason, I'd get choked up watching it. I should watch it again soon...
One thing to be aware of: HBO released this twice - once in 1998 as a four disc collector's edition and again in 2005 as a 5 disc Signature Edition. While the Signature edition's fifth disc does have some impressive featurettes (I have the original release so have not seen this disc), HBO remastered the episodes themselves to be in 1.78 widescreen format. From the many reviews on Amazon.com, it appears this remastering was a "cheat" and ended up cutting off parts of the picture to create the widescreen effect. This also had the apparent side effect of diminishing some of the special effects sequences (according to Amazon.com reviewers).
I'm hoping HBO will release this again in July (though there's no word it will be) in its original 4:3 aspect ratio along with the extra fifth disc.
In any case, I can strongly recommend viewing this series.
Have you seen From the Earth to the Moon? If so, share your thoughts below!
Thanks for reading my blog and Follow this Blog!
