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76
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9
17
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37
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53
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66
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45
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61
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55
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43
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66
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29
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23
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80
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61
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39
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xx
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30
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34
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60
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32
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27
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41
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39
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46
Halloween II
73
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78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
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66
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34
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33
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54
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67
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51
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42
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28
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63
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86
Ponyo![]()
35
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48
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30
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53
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24
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83
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33
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45
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55
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47
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96
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35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
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88
Up![]()
71
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67
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28
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73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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58
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96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
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61
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xx
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58
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72
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48
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73
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62
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55
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76
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86
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13
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70
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35
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71
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66
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51
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76
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26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
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45
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81
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70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
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57
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62
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65
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69
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59
Collapse
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82
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75
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82
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67
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71
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70
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24
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85
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55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
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63
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73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
In the Shadow of the Moon

Universal acclaim
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Directed by: David Sington
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 7, 2007
DVD: February 12, 2008
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: UK
Summary
RATING: PG for mild language, brief violent images and incidental smoking
Starring Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Eugene Cernan, Michael Collins, Jim Lovell, Edgar D. Mitchell, and Harrison Schmitt
Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecrafts voyaged to the Moon, and 12 men walked upon its surface. They remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. In the Shadow of the Moon brings together for the first--and possibly the last--time the surviving crew members from every single Apollo mission that flew to the Moon, and allows them to tell their story in their own words. This riveting first-hand testimony is interwoven with visually stunning archival material that has been remastered from the original NASA film footage--much of it never used before. The result is an intimate epic that vividly communicates the daring, the danger, the pride, and the promise of this extraordinary era in history, when the whole world literally looked up at America. (THINKFilm)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site View The Trailer
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
In the Shadow of the Moon finds new resonance in the moment when America redefined progress -- but also when it heeded the siren song of a world so desolate it reminded you what a paradise ours truly is.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
These astronauts are still alive, but as long as mankind survives, their journeys will be seen as the turning point -- to what, it is still to be seen.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
It's both irrefutably concrete and irresistibly uplifting.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
After seeing this film, try reading Norman Mailer's "Of A Fire on the Moon," its perfect companion piece.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
This magnificent documentary, directed by David Sington and presented by Ron Howard, rises to the occasion by interspersing its interviews with NASA footage that evokes the grandeur of the whole Apollo adventure.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
The riveting documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, is an unexpected knockout.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The value of this film, not just to moviegoers today but to future generations, is simply enormous.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
May well be the most exciting documentary of the year so far. I guess it took a British director, David Sington, to capture the story of the dozen American men who walked on the moon -- the only human beings in our species history yet to visit another celestial body.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
I came out giddy, feeling lighter--by about five-sixths--than I did when I went in.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Joel Achenbach
Now, finally, we know what it was like to walk on the moon: unbelievably cool. Amazing. Fantastic. Scary.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
The story (even more so if you weren't around in July of 1969) is gripping, eloquent, and powerful stuff, the right stuff right down to its pioneering heart, taking manifest destiny to the stars themselves.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Seeing the Earth from the point of view these men saw it -- ''like a jewel hung in the blackness'' -- tends to put things in perspective.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
It's a stirring reminder of a time when anything seemed possible - these American heroes boosted morale eroded by the Vietnam War, as well as bringing the whole world together to celebrate their success.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
One small documentary for a filmmaker and one giant leap in inspiration for audiences.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi
By 2020, when NASA's Orion lunar spacecraft is scheduled to launch, it's unlikely that any Apollo veterans will still be alive. Sington has done us a service in helping preserve their memories.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It ends on a random note, making an awkward plea for better ecological stewardship of the Earth, which looked so small and frail to the astronauts regarding it from the moon. But otherwise it's a satisfying and heartening reminder of what a glorious thing a small group of men once contrived to do.
Read Full Review >Empire Ross Bennett
This wonderful documentary succeeds as a reminder of human endeavour.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
In the Shadow of the Moon is such a morale booster. The power of its archival images hasn’t diminished with familiarity.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
Bean, a lovely guy with a touch of Mickey Rooney, is one of the stars of Sington’s rousing show. There was something unearthly, in every sense, about the astronauts in their prime.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Reece Pendleton
The astronaut interviews are fun and occasionally moving, but the real reason to see this is the remastered archival footage, some of it previously unseen and all of it spectacular.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
As we watch the astonishing NASA footage, they eloquently evoke the optimism, anxiety and excitement of those voyages.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
The excitement, majesty and extraordinary human accomplishment of the American lunar program of the '60s and early '70s is rousingly captured in In the Shadow of the Moon.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jim Ridley
In the Shadow of the Moon recalls the wondrous moment when America had the entire world looking up, up, and not away.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Want to know what the “right stuff” really is? Take a look.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
It has the air of an officially sanctioned tribute rather than a probing study, but it's stirring all the same.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Leba Hertz
For those of us too young, this will give you an idea of what it meant to watch those baby steps that led to one giant leap.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Sington's smartest decision was to let 10 of the astronauts speak for themselves. The film juxtaposes their personal stories, both their doubts and machismo, with the titanic achievement of the lunar landings.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
There's more to the film than nostalgia; it also offers insight, and that's what makes it worth viewing on the big screen rather than waiting for its Discovery Channel premiere.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
And oh, what stories these heroes have to tell - and what incredible sights they brought back with them.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
There's none of the poetry of "For All Mankind," just visual support for a meat-and-potatoes recap of events that have already been chewed over plenty.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jay H. gave it an8:
Awesome documentary, fascinating from start to finish with excellent interviews. It is very well edited, never sluggish and frequently thought provoking. A wonderful and educational experience.
Patricia B. gave it a10:
One of the best documentaries I've seen since One Day in September. Of course, the feeling this film leaves you with is completely the opposite of that one - this movie is so uplifting and powerful. Even for someone who wasn't alive at the time when landing on the moon was a miraculous event - this film captures that time, that excitement.... it transports us back to the early days of the space program and moved me to tears of joy! The filmmaking is excellent. The director wisely lets the spectacular images and the succinct storytelling of the astronauts do all the work. A great movie for families. The audience I saw it with applauded several times. Pretty impressive given that we all know how this one ends!
Kevin C. gave it a10:
I know it's easy to give out absolutes -- 10 or 0 -- but in this case, just trust me. This film, without narration, isn't a documentary. It captures so much about what makes us Americans, what makes us humans. There's so much nuance here, you're generously rewarded for paying attention, I'm not sure even the Astronauts knew what the filmmakers were putting together. No SFX will ever match the Saturn-V ignition or Buzz Aldrin being the first human to pee on the Moon. It's inspiring, touching and crisp enough to never be boring. Spellbinding.
