With this new “Signature Edition”, HBO has elevated “From The Earth To The Moon” from not only essential viewing but to a potential must-have in everyone’s DVD collection.
Appropriately, this 12-hour miniseries brings the stories of these unsung heroes and countless more who worked behind the scenes, to the fore. It creates a fitting legacy for those who worked so hard to restore America´s pride in the space race. "From The Earth To The Moon" is an astounding achievement for a television miniseries, bringing forth both the emotional and physical toil that the space program demanded. The emotional aspect of the show was never so clear as in the episode "1968", which recounted the many national disasters (escalating war in Vietnam, rioting on campuses, the assassinations of Dr. King and RFK) that struck that year and culminating in the one bright spark that took place during the Christmas holidays--the successful Apollo 8 mission whose crew become the first men to orbit the moon. The episode ended on a very poignant and fitting note, with Michael Collins reading out a congratulatory telegram for the crew with the simple message, "You saved 1968."
The cast for this miniseries is enormous to say the least and I can´t even begin to name them all. What I can say though is that there are no major stars on this show, just lots of faces that you probably recognize but just can´t put a name to them. Even without any stars, the entire cast works like a well-oiled machine, delivering great performances all round. Just like the brave men and women they portray on screen, no one stands out and everyone contributes, which is an incredible achievement considering that big stars are usually brought in to helm a show and give it an air of credibility. "From The Earth To The Moon" certainly proves to me that with great writing, directing and editing, there is no need to rely on major movie stars to carry a show. A group of lesser-known but just as talented and committed thespians would do just as well.
The twelve episodes are evenly distributed among the following four DVDs:
Disc 1: "Can We Do This?", "Apollo One", "We Have Cleared The Tower"
Disc 2: "1968", "Spider", "Mare Tranquilatis"
Disc 3: "That´s All There Is", "We Interrupt This Program", "For Miles And Miles"
Disc 4: "Galileo Was Right", "The Original Wives´ Club", "Le Voyage Dans La Lune"
Video:
Like I mentioned earlier, this "Signature Edition" sports a brand new anamorphic widescreen video presentation, which replaces the old pan and scan one in the old DVD release. The images are clean and mostly devoid of any transfer errors or instances of dirt and scratches. Colors are also nicely saturated with natural-looking skin tones and appropriate color levels. Subtitle options include English, Spanish and French.
Audio:
New to this edition is a DTS 5.1 audio track, put in to complement the Dolby Digital 5.1 track. While I would not go into the nuances and advantages of one format over the other, the DTS one is, in my own opinion, more forceful and generally louder. However, both audio tracks do offer the same openness in the front sound field (especially during the soaring orchestral musical arrangements) and also the appropriate amounts of surround activity to go with short periods of booming bass. Overall, both 5.1 options offer the same amount of advantage over the lesser 2-channel options. Other audio tracks on this DVD set include Dolby Surround 2.0 in English, Spanish and French.
Extras:
Starting off this bonus material section are a pair of featurettes, the first is "Behind the Scenes: Making of ´From The Earth To The Moon´" and the other is "Special Effects". The behind-the-scenes feature runs for almost 30 minutes and is quite an interesting documentary about the efforts that went into the making of the miniseries, showing the accurately recreated sets and interviewing the actors, directors, producers and many more. In "Special Effects" (runs for just a brief 4 minutes), we are brought through the various processes of creating the hundreds of visual effects shots of the spacecrafts and the surface of the moon, with the ultimate goal of making them look as authentic and as dramatic as possible.
In "Original Trailers", six different trailers are made available for your viewing. They are titled, "Destination Moon", "Emotion", "Rocket Science", "The Pitch", "Cowboys" and "Sure Hope I See You Again".
Next is "The Beginning of the Movement", where you can read the text of President Kennedy´s speech to Congress on the national goal of sending a man to the moon and also listen to a short excerpt of that speech.
In "The Space Race Timeline", you can peruse and read the many events that happened on both sides (USA and USSR) of the space race, from 1957 to 1975.
"The History of the Moon" is yet another text-only feature that describes the many unique characteristics of the moon with pictures courtesy of NASA.
"Out of This Solar System" is a feature for the astronomy buffs, describing in some detail about the following: "Galaxies", "The Lives of Stars", "Supernova", "Pulsars", "Black Holes" and "Quasars".
Finally, "Famous Astronomers" lists down history´s famous astronomers starting with Aristarchus (c. 310-230 BC) and ending with Eugene M. Shoemaker and describes their individual achievements.
Packaging:
The five DVDs are housed in an attractive 5-panel foldout box that fits inside an outer, more durable box. A booklet that lists a short synopsis of each of the twelve episodes and a ticket to the upcoming IMAX feature "Magnificent Desolation: Walking On The Moon 3D" are also included with the packaging.
Film Value:
Like the equally amazing HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" that came after it, "From The Earth To The Moon" is an incredible achievement in inspirational storytelling and historical correctness. It is able to capture with utmost respect and authenticity, the hopes, the joys, the fears and the sacrifices of the men and women from that era when mankind was taking baby steps on its journey to the moon. With this new "Signature Edition", HBO has elevated "From The Earth To The Moon" from not only essential viewing but to a potential must-have in everyone´s DVD collection.
The cast for this miniseries is enormous to say the least and I can´t even begin to name them all. What I can say though is that there are no major stars on this show, just lots of faces that you probably recognize but just can´t put a name to them. Even without any stars, the entire cast works like a well-oiled machine, delivering great performances all round. Just like the brave men and women they portray on screen, no one stands out and everyone contributes, which is an incredible achievement considering that big stars are usually brought in to helm a show and give it an air of credibility. "From The Earth To The Moon" certainly proves to me that with great writing, directing and editing, there is no need to rely on major movie stars to carry a show. A group of lesser-known but just as talented and committed thespians would do just as well.
The twelve episodes are evenly distributed among the following four DVDs:
Disc 1: "Can We Do This?", "Apollo One", "We Have Cleared The Tower"
Disc 2: "1968", "Spider", "Mare Tranquilatis"
Disc 3: "That´s All There Is", "We Interrupt This Program", "For Miles And Miles"
Disc 4: "Galileo Was Right", "The Original Wives´ Club", "Le Voyage Dans La Lune"
Video:
Like I mentioned earlier, this "Signature Edition" sports a brand new anamorphic widescreen video presentation, which replaces the old pan and scan one in the old DVD release. The images are clean and mostly devoid of any transfer errors or instances of dirt and scratches. Colors are also nicely saturated with natural-looking skin tones and appropriate color levels. Subtitle options include English, Spanish and French.
Audio:
New to this edition is a DTS 5.1 audio track, put in to complement the Dolby Digital 5.1 track. While I would not go into the nuances and advantages of one format over the other, the DTS one is, in my own opinion, more forceful and generally louder. However, both audio tracks do offer the same openness in the front sound field (especially during the soaring orchestral musical arrangements) and also the appropriate amounts of surround activity to go with short periods of booming bass. Overall, both 5.1 options offer the same amount of advantage over the lesser 2-channel options. Other audio tracks on this DVD set include Dolby Surround 2.0 in English, Spanish and French.
Extras:
Starting off this bonus material section are a pair of featurettes, the first is "Behind the Scenes: Making of ´From The Earth To The Moon´" and the other is "Special Effects". The behind-the-scenes feature runs for almost 30 minutes and is quite an interesting documentary about the efforts that went into the making of the miniseries, showing the accurately recreated sets and interviewing the actors, directors, producers and many more. In "Special Effects" (runs for just a brief 4 minutes), we are brought through the various processes of creating the hundreds of visual effects shots of the spacecrafts and the surface of the moon, with the ultimate goal of making them look as authentic and as dramatic as possible.
In "Original Trailers", six different trailers are made available for your viewing. They are titled, "Destination Moon", "Emotion", "Rocket Science", "The Pitch", "Cowboys" and "Sure Hope I See You Again".
Next is "The Beginning of the Movement", where you can read the text of President Kennedy´s speech to Congress on the national goal of sending a man to the moon and also listen to a short excerpt of that speech.
In "The Space Race Timeline", you can peruse and read the many events that happened on both sides (USA and USSR) of the space race, from 1957 to 1975.
"The History of the Moon" is yet another text-only feature that describes the many unique characteristics of the moon with pictures courtesy of NASA.
"Out of This Solar System" is a feature for the astronomy buffs, describing in some detail about the following: "Galaxies", "The Lives of Stars", "Supernova", "Pulsars", "Black Holes" and "Quasars".
Finally, "Famous Astronomers" lists down history´s famous astronomers starting with Aristarchus (c. 310-230 BC) and ending with Eugene M. Shoemaker and describes their individual achievements.
Packaging:
The five DVDs are housed in an attractive 5-panel foldout box that fits inside an outer, more durable box. A booklet that lists a short synopsis of each of the twelve episodes and a ticket to the upcoming IMAX feature "Magnificent Desolation: Walking On The Moon 3D" are also included with the packaging.
Film Value:
Like the equally amazing HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" that came after it, "From The Earth To The Moon" is an incredible achievement in inspirational storytelling and historical correctness. It is able to capture with utmost respect and authenticity, the hopes, the joys, the fears and the sacrifices of the men and women from that era when mankind was taking baby steps on its journey to the moon. With this new "Signature Edition", HBO has elevated "From The Earth To The Moon" from not only essential viewing but to a potential must-have in everyone´s DVD collection.
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[release]16374[/release]