I picked up the DVD of In The Shadow Of The Moon this weekend and I can't recommend it highly enough. This documentary gathers together the surviving crewmembers of the Apollo missions to the moon (with the exception of noted recluse Neil Armstrong) and allows them to tell their story in their own words. Of course, there's also tons of glorious NASA footage, most of it rarely seen and all of it newly remastered. There's a remarkable sequence of Armstrong bailing out of a lunar lander simulator just seconds before it crashes into the ground and explodes. And we learn that while Neil was the first man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin can forever boast of being the first to urinate there. These guys are such amazing storytellers and the footage is so breathtaking...just go get it, now. $14.99 at Best Buy. Think of it as a historical document. Something for your kids, if nothing else. My kids already love it. Good thing since I'll be watching it over and over.

And if any of you...any of you...can keep it together when, after it's announced that "The Eagle has landed, " they show Walter Cronkite sitting in his anchor position...taking off his glasses and dabbing at his eyes as he giggles elatedly, you are officially a motherless, soulless non-human.

My memories of that historic event are inexticably bound with Walter. I was still pretty young when that happened and the thing that impressed me most (even more than landing on the moon for pity's sake!) was that the TV anchor acted so excited about it. It just blew me away that the always calm, serene newsman was so obviously excited.

I just watched this documentary this weekend, and it really is amazing. Hearing the astronauts account in their own words makes it so cool. I was really surprised how funny they all are. Mike Collins and Alan Bean are really fantastic storytellers, especially.

As fantastic as the footage from NASA is, the radio conversations between astronauts give you a neat snapshot of their personalities. There's an extra scene with Mike Collins explaining that in some ways, it's a shame all these terse test pilots became astronauts, because you don't get enough sense from them of what they're feeling. Those little exchanges over the radio, like where they exchange compliments about what they're flying. It's just moving in a way, very human.

My only quibble is that the subtitled conversations and little paragraph updates are very small and in white type. Hard to read.