

All-Moon Monday Presents: Movies About the Moon (the Director's Cut)

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Here's an expanded version (even more movie list goodness!) of an article I had in Friday's Courant:

French director Georges Melies made "A Trip to the Moon" in 1902, arguably the first blockbuster movie, setting the standard for all moon-related movies since.
    The film was only 14 minutes long, but considerably longer than most films of the day. With the special effects and quirky style that Melies would be known for, "it was one of the few films that people knew by name at the time," says David Schwartz of New York's Museum of the Moving Image.
    Even if you haven't seen the whole film, you've probably seen the iconic image of the rocket ship stuck in the moon's eye. Opportunities to watch it used to be limited to special screenings (the Museum of the Moving Image has it on the hand-cranked Mutoscope). But thanks to YouTube, now you can see it in entirety whenever you want.
    In anticipation of Monday's 40th anniversary of the moon landing we take a look at some of cinema's more notable (though not always good) moon-related movies
    2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
    The moon plays an indirect role in this one, but it gets included because of the back story. Stanley Kubrick began filming the classic tale in space around the time that the race to the moon started catching the public's imagination. Kubrick wanted his movie in theaters before anyone landed on the moon, partly so that his vision of space would be in filmgoers' minds first. It worked: The spaceship's stark interior, the bone in the air transforming into a spaceship and that evil computer HAL are among the most referenced images in all of cinema. And he beat Neil Armstrong and company by about a year.

It's either one of the greatest movies in history, or boring as hell. The comments on the YouTube clip give a good indication of its divisiveness.

Destroy All Monsters (1968)
    The same year that brought us Kubrick's masterpiece also gave us this chapter in the Godzilla saga. Controlled by an alien race based on the moon, the lizard king and pals attack world capitals. 
Capricorn One (1978)
    This one's for the conspiracy theorists. Before 1969, lunar films asked "What if we could land on the moon?" By the 1970s, it turned to "What if we never had?" Starring Sam Waterston, James Brolin and O.J. Simpson (!) as astronauts who get caught up in a conspiracy to fake the landing. It was directed by Peter Hyams, who would go on to direct "2010" a sequel to "2001." 
Apollo 13 (1995)
    Maybe the most obvious choice on this list, and for good reason - it's one of director Ron Howard's best. The story of the unsuccessful attempt to make it to the moon again in 1970 is thrilling, inspiring and not nearly as hammy as it could have been. 
The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)
    Eddie Murphy as the owner of a moon-based nightclub. Notable for being one of the biggest financial disasters in movie history. How Murphy recovered from this to make more bad movies is anyone's guess. 
For All Mankind (1989) and In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
    For those who prefer actual facts, these are considered to be among the best documentaries about the moon landing. 
Moon (2009) 
    Released this year, it's too early to tell where this fits in the pantheon of lunar films. But first-time director Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son) has been racking up rave reviews with "Moon." It stars Sam Rockwell as an corporate employee stationed on the moon. In a nod toward HAL, his only companion is a robot voiced by Kevin Spacey.

The First Men in the Moon (1919) and (1964)

Based on the H.G. Wells novel, it was first adapted into a silent film and then a Technicolor flick of the 1960s. Asks what if the first men on the moon really weren't first?

Moonraker (1979)

James Bond in space with Jaws (the metal-toothed villain) and Holly Goodhead. It's OK - seems to be on TV a lot.   


2001: One of the greatest if all time.

I guess it all depends on whether you see the 'portal' as acting on the apes in the initial scene or as simple observer of evolution.

Given the role of the portal throughout the rest of the film (on the Moon and Jupiter) the theme would demand it was not a passive observer. And that makes it thought provoking. That and the inner journey and death/rebirth motif as the real journey masked by the scientific iciness of HAL and the Discovery mission.

I couldn't get the whole movie to play on youtube without having to watch it in parts. Love the movie but I watched it on OVguide without having to watch it in segments.

Sometimes I feel like Roger Ebert, who calls it one of the greatest (he might actually have said THE greatest) films, and other times like Stanley Kauffmann, who couldn't stress enough how boring he thought it was.

Probably, I take Kauffmann's side when I'm watching it (I don't know the running time, but it does feel loooong), and I take Ebert's when I'm thinking about it in the abstract. I haven't seen it in a while and all the stuff that comes to mind are all those great iconic images - the bone in the sky, the spaceship interior - plus there's that otherworldly Ligeti music.

So - it's one of the movies that's great to think about and discuss, but I'm not rushing to my Netflix account to watch it again anytime soon.

Anyway, thanks for the comments.

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