An incredible documentary on former NASA astronaut and Navy captain Eugene ‘Gene’ Cernan, who was the last man to set foot on the moon with Apollo 17. Though future Apollo missions were planned up to 22, they never materialised due to budgets cuts.
A husband, father, and the last of 12 Apollo astronauts to get their space boots covered in moon dust, Cernan pulls no punches in this film.
40 years on, it’s time for Cernan to tell his story. You hear of his sadness of being away from his daughter for long periods of time, but knowing she was always on his mind by even etching her initials on the moon soil before blasting off in the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and rendezvousing with the Command Model (CM) in orbit as well as his elation from millions of people on Earth who revered him and these daring men as trailblazers. True heroes who were willing to risk their lives for the sake of exploration of the unknown. Space Cowboys who truly had the Right Stuff.
His heartbreak and stress when the original two astronauts; Elliot See and Charles Bassett of the Gemini 9 spacecraft were killed in a T-38 crash where he and Thomas P. Stafford were chosen to replace them and when neighbor and friend, Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom and Ed White lost their lives in the Apollo 1 tragedy.
Fast paced and well edited, Stewart combines NASA archival and space footage, rare home movies and an excellent swinging ‘60s soundtrack make this film an instant classic not to be missed.
A special moment in this inspiring, emotional documentary is when Mr. Cernan, now in his eighties living on his Texas ranch where ‘retirement’ is not in his vocabulary, looks into the camera and says; “I walked on the moon. What can’t you do?”
A must see.
THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: MARK CRAIG / STARRING: EUGENE CERNAN, ALAN BEAN, CHARLES DUKE, RICHARD GORDON, GENE KRANZ / RELEASE DATE: APRIL 8TH
Expected Rating: 8 out of 10
Actual Rating:
