The Moonwalkers

The Moonwalkers

When I was 16, I bunked off school early to go home and watch the launch of the first space shuttle, Columbia. As it lifted off and arced into the heavens, tears came unbidden to my eyes and a lump appeared in my throat. It was the first time that I had cried since I was a baby. That moment in time was so uplifting because it showed what mankind could do when they work together. The space shuttle heralded a new age of exploration and promised such hope and optimism for the future. The American Century had seen the continent go from cowboys and Indians to putting man on the moon in less than a hundred years. Astonishing.

Seeing ‘The Moonwalkers’ stirred the embers of that memory - a marvellously uplifting, inspiring and moving film about the seven Apollo missions to the moon. Everything is pitch perfect from Tom Hanks narration to the period visuals and the soaring music. Once again, I found myself eyes wet with tears, a lump in the throat and a big cheesy grin on my face. What ‘The Moonwalkers’ does so well is to convey the magnitude of that achievement of putting man on the moon. Everybody coming together from the scientists to the engineers to the technicians to the administrators - the ‘little man’, ordinary people putting the buck in ‘Buck Rogers’, a collaborative effort and not just the famous astronauts that history touched. As Tom Hanks says at the end, if mankind could put 12 people on the moon, we can solve any problem and that sense of achievement, pride, team work, hope, optimism and potentiality really shines through this thrilling film. Go see and be inspired.