Opens in IMAX in Canada on Friday, I just read!!!
Not just 70mm (or to be nitpicky, 65mm negatives that become 70 when the soundtracks are added) but 70mm Todd-AO. Much of the footage was originally destined for a “roadshow” Apollo program movie, but it was shelved as the public was getting a bit burned out by the frequent launches. (Apollo 12 was just two months later, for example)
We saw it at the Metreon Imax. Seeing it across the bay at Emeryville would have been considerably more convenient, but I nixed that when Yelp reviews describe the smaller Emeryville screen as LIE-Max. :eek: That said, the Metreon people need to either tighten or pad a lot of stuff in the ceiling as it sounded like the place was going to collapse when the rocket lit. So much random buzzing and rattling!
My one wish for the movie would be for them to have subtitled all of that 30-track comm audio. Even after someone figured out how to play it back and recover sound from what were surely 50 year old and disintegrating tapes in an unusual format, it was a lot of squawky gravel-garble. Other than conversations that verge on unintelligible, the whole presentation is amazing.
I can confirm that in Chicago it opens in 12 regular theaters on Friday. I saw it at the Navy Pier IMAX last Friday but I might go see it again sometime next week just to support it, and because, well, it’s amazing.
I want a day-long marathon (in the theater) of The Right Stuff, Hidden Figures, First Man, Apollo 11 and Apollo 13.
Sounds great. Throw in Mercury 13.
Don’t forget Tom Hanks’ From the Earth to the Moon miniseries. At 12 hours, that turns this into a 24-hour-plus marathon.
I saw Apollo 11 yesterday in an IMAX theater and am joining the chorus urging any space-buffs or even those just interested in history to do likewise. Even though, like any historical documentary, you know what’s going to happen you will be on the edge of your seat. My heart was pounding watching the fuel remaining time dwindle down during the landing, never mind the goddam 1202 alarms.
I liked the soundtrack as well, and was wondering whether it was by Hans Zimmer. Nope, Matt Morton using an ancient Moog synthesizer.
No, I listen to a lot of live music and I’m about as forgiving as you can get. If this wasn’t a function of equipment then it was deliberate.
I’m also an amateur photographer and admittedly bad at it. Virtually all the crowd shots were done with a very limited field of focus. The person in front and behind the subjects were out of focus. When they panned over the crowd toward the rocket in the distance the rocket was only recognizable because you knew that was what the crowd was looking at. They then went on to focus on the rocket. It looked like NASA had given a camera to college intern.
I found it annoying because I wanted to see all the detail the film was capable of since it was a window in time. Fortunately it wasn’t a huge part of the film. I look forward to seeing it again.
There was a note in the end credits that every instrument used was from the period.
Another interesting bit is the involvement of Ben Feist, brother of singer/songwriter Leslie Feist. He’s a writer on space and has done an enormous amount of work restoring the audio of the Apollo missions.
When is that coming out on BluRay? I have the DVD set but am willing to buy it again.
Well, I just saw it, however not in IMAX. I loved it, but I’m a geek for this stuff.
It was very enjoyable. I picked out Johnny Carson in the crowd, and I’m pretty sure Lyndon Johnson too.
I was taken aback that Chappaquiddick was in the background narrative at one point, but I suppose it frames the time in history.
Overall I was glued to it.
I saw it yesterday, not on Imax. Loved it. I remember little bits of it when I was a kid but I was too young at the time to really appreciate what was going on. This film was wonderful and gave me new appreciation for what they did. Some random thoughts:
My husband has always said that the Apollo 11 mission made him want to be an astronaut when he was a kid. He never followed through on that but has been a lifelong astronaut fan. I told him that now I understood why he wanted to be one, but the film made me NOT want to be one. However, I would have totally LOVED to be one of the engineers in that command center.
When they said that Buzz Aldrin’s heart rate after the launch was 88bpm, we looked at each other and gave each other WTF? hand signals. LOL! That man had ice water in his veins.
I loved the diagrams being interspersed throughout the mission. It helped to explain what they were doing, highlighting the sheer distance. I also marveled at the maneuvers, the amount of math and engineering that went into executing them so flawlessly. The margin for error had to be pants-wettingly microscopic. I’m really glad for this film, we needed to see this again and appreciate what those people (i.e. we) accomplished.
Bumping to note that CNN will be broadcasting (what purports to be) this documentary tonight (23 June) at 21:00 Eastern. Won’t have nearly the impact as IMAX, but still impressive.
My brother and I saw the IMAX edition back in March and we turned to each other at that moment, bro mouthing “The right stuff.”
I am waiting, rather impatiently, for the Blu-ray to be issued.
Blu ray has been out since May.
Did you see it at Arizona Mills?
For anyone in the Toronto area, the Cinesphere at Ontario Place is doing a limited showing of Apollo 11. It was on last weekend and again next. This is the largest IMAX theater in the province (and the first IMAX theater in the world, actually). They’re equipped for both 70mm IMAX film and laser digital and I assume that they’re using the film version. This is one of the last IMAX theaters around to have film capabilities.
I’m going to guess that they’re showing it in digital, but I’ve sent an e-mail to the manager, who’s a friend of mine.
FYI, there are over 100 IMAX film projectors still operational around the world, although about a third of them are in multiplexes that almost never use them. But in Toronto you have two in regular use: Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Center. (Cineplex Cinemas Mississauga has IMAX film and digital, but hasn’t used the film projector since *Dunkirk *in 2017. They may get a film print of Chris Nolan’s next film in summer 2020.)
Hey, thanks, if you find out what format it is, please post here and let me know. I may be going to see it this weekend. My son was there during the Toronto film festival some time back for a screening of Dunkirk with Chris Nolan in attendance and taking Q&A afterwards, and that had to be a 70mm IMAX-format film screening, because Nolan is apparently maniacal about film vs. digital.
Huh. I checked on Amazon in May. Must have been a tad early.
Yes, 'twas Arizona Mills.
My friend at Ontario Place says it’s digital, and that it’s only playing next weekend. So don’t put it off.
FYI, IMAX laser on that screen is as good or better than IMAX film.