In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy's challenge of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." No-one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Al Reinert's documentary For All Mankind is the story of the twenty-four men who traveled to the Moon, told in their words, in their voices, using the images of their experiences. Forty years later, it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema yet made about this earth-shaking event.
For All Mankind has been announced for a DVD and Blu-ray release in the US by Criterion for the 14th July 2009 at the SRP of $29.95 for the DVD and $39.95 for the Blu-ray. The features of both discs are as follows:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by producer-director Al Reinert (with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition);
- Audio commentary featuring Reinert and Apollo 17 commander Eugene A. Cernan, the last man to set foot on the moon;
- An Accidental Gift: The Making of “For All Mankind,” a new documentary featuring interviews with Reinert, Apollo 12 and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean, and NASA archive specialists Don Pickard, Mike Gentry, Morris Williams, and Chuck Welch;
- On Camera, a collection of excerpted on-screen interviews with fifteen of the Apollo astronauts;
- New video program about Bean's artwork, accompanied by a gallery of his paintings;
- NASA audio highlights and liftoff footage;
- Optional on-screen identification of astronauts and mission control specialists;
- A booklet featuring essays by film critic Terrence Rafferty and Reinert.
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