The Last Man on the Moon

If you have any interest in NASA, the moon, Apollo, Gemini etc. then there are four movies that you absolutely must have in your collection. In the shadow of the moon, When we left earth and the two superb hollywood productions Apollo 13 and the mini series From the Earth to the moon.Well make space in your collection for another must have movie, every bit as good if not better than those above. The Last man on the Moon.I have a vast collection of movies regarding NASA and their missions including all the Spacecraft films movies about Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (these contain the original NASA footage of the missions albeit edited) and there is a lot of footage in this movie that I have never seen before.The last man on the moon is really the story of Gene Cernan, one of only 12 people in the whole of humanity that has ever set foot on the moon and even rarer, one of only three people to have ever travelled to the moon twice (John Young and Jim Lovell being the other two). Gene was the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 10 "Painting a big white line in the sky" for Neil Armstrong to follow in his historic Apollo 11 lunar landing. Gene was also the Commander of the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17 and was the last person to have set foot on the moon.It has been nearly 45 years since that historic last mission and Gene (and others) reflect on this, how sad he is that America has never followed it up. He hopes one day that somebody will go back to his landing site, go the rover that he left there and see where he inscribed his daughters initials on the moons surface.The movie expertly details the key moments in Genes life, from his early days in the navy, to getting the call to join NASA. His Gemini and both Apollo missions. Along with Gene, former Apollo astronauts Jim Lovell, Alan Bean, Dick Gordon and Tom Stafford appear in the movie along with Chris Kraft and Gene Kranz from operations in "Houston" as it was affectionately known.This movie was 5 years in the making and Gene graciously gave much of his time to the film crew allowing them full access to his home, his ranch, even his daughters surprise 50th birthday party (one of the Extras on the Blu Ray).The movie itself is 95 minutes long with 8 extras packed into the Blu Ray release. One point worth noting is that if your only Blu Ray player is an Xbox one then you are out of luck as the Xbox One will not play this. Works fine on the Playstation however. The photography is excellent and in certain parts there are some CGI scenes which are the best depictions I have seen in a biography.As I said before, if you have any interest in space then this is a must have movie and even if you don't this is still very much worth a watch. I can see why it has already won so many awards.

The Last Man On The Moon (2014) is a documentary on former NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan, to this day the last man to have walked on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. This is a very good looking and well made film and looks spectacular on Blu Ray. The documentary shows Gene Cernan the man, the person, and not just his time as an astronaut. Though a little slow paced and somber at times, the film in my opinion is still able to hold the interest and attention of viewers, especially of those who actually have something that is becoming increasingly rare - an attention span. I find this documentary quite a bit better than Armstrong (2019). Other former astronauts are interviewed throughout the film as well, such as Alan Bean, Charlie Duke, Tom Stafford, Jim Lovell, and many others, as well as NASA's Gene Kranz and Christopher Kraft and some of the astronaut's wives.The musical score was very well done and is one of the strong points of the film.One of my favorite scenes in the film is Cernan lamenting about how there isn't much of anything going on at the space centers these days and how he was almost sorry that he went to the space center that day to shoot the scenes where he talks about these very things. I also like the attention given to Gemini 9 and Apollo 10, two missions Cernan was part of.Overall, an excellent documentary that I highly recommend.

I'm a space junkie and had followed the space program from Mercury through Apollo. I just finished the book, which was excellent, and decided to download the movie. I enjoyed it very much. I didn't pick up on the ego that a few reviewers mentioned. These guys all had a great deal of confidence, which was required for the hazardous work they were doing. I really wanted to know what was going on in their heads, what they were feeling inside as they blasted off in these massive rockets, and what they were feeling inside when they landed and walked on the moon. Gene Cernan gives you that perspective. These men were incredibly brave and we will not see their likes again. The one sad casualty is what this race to the moon did to many of the marriages. However, the movie shows what America can do when it puts its mind to it. It is such a shame that we have more or less gutted NASA and given up on space travel. Many of the conveniences that we have today we owe to the brilliant engineers that worked there during the 60's and 70's. Other great movies to watch are Moonshot, From the Earth to the Moon and The Right Stuff. All are excellent.I recommend this movie highly as well. RIP Gene Cernan.

Enjoyable and interesting.

I have been very fortunate to be able to interview Captain Cernan (in 2001) and even better, played golf in the Moonwalker Invitational a group behind him in San Diego (I played with Apollo 9 Cmdr. Jim McDivitt). After our rounds, Gene was a lot of fun to have a beer with and even facilitated me getting dropped off at my motel by his shuttle. He is a truly class act and one of the kindest of the astronauts. This is a wonderful way to experience what it is like to be around him. A fine documentary and a nice compliment to his biography by the same name. There are sad moments, being an astronaut was (and is) hard and dangerous work that demands a lot of time away from family. On the one hand, I hope Gene does take it easy and spend more time in the quiet work on his ranch. But I suspect he wouldn't be happy without at least a bit of contact with people at autograph sessions, etc. Attending one of those events (SpaceFest in San Diego), it seemed kind of weird to me to see people wait in line, swipe their credit cards before getting a few moments to get something signed by the astronauts, have a picture moment, etc. But I am not a space collectibles person either. Just love hearing stories about the guys I grew up watching during the height of the space race. Highly recommend this film!

Mark Stewart Productions have done an outstanding job of capturing the excitement, danger and human courage involved in this amazing feat. Mark is one of the sons of World Formula One Champion racing driver, Sir Jackie Stewart, who appears on the credits. I suspect Sir Jackie had an input here. The human aspect of the enterprise, including personal anecdotes from the astronauts wives, "if you think going to the moon was hard, try staying home!" was one poignant example, this movie brought the whole moon shot into real life, not just a dry technical liturgy, a real human adventure never before attempted by mankind. It should be a best seller and gain wide acclaim!

This movie was beautifully done. It shows just what the astronauts had to go through during all the training and the missions and how they had to make so many sacrifices to help the US beat the Russians to the moon. Also showed what the families of the astronauts had to go through as well during this period of Man Space Flight. It also shows us that these man, who so many called hero's were just like the rest of us, family men. Had been waiting for over a year to see this and now that I own a copy I can enjoy it when ever I want.

Wonderful documentary on the last man to step foot on the moon. Watch it you won't be disappointed.

I'm no hardcore space nut but I do enjoy documentary and drama films about the golden years of space travel. I am not a technical person so for me it is the human angle that holds my interest and this film is very much about the human aspect of the Apollo program. For me there is something about the men who went to the moon that sets them apart from all other astronauts and that really comes across in this film. I wonder if we will ever see their like again or even ever live in times like that once more. The film also gives a voice to the wives and children caught up in it all and their stories are important too. Gene Cernan has left us now , which makes this film all the more precious. This is a beautiful film that I will watch again and again.

Please note that I'm reviewing the UK 'Blu-ray only' edition. As other reviewers have said, the 95-minute documentary is a wonderfully inspiring account of Cernan's NASA career, culminating in his final mission on Apollo 17. Perhaps the most interesting part is the often touching account of the later part of his life.However be warned that the extra item on this Blu-ray edition is NOT the full 65 minutes of additional material on the dual format Blu-ray/DVD special edition; it is a mere 20 minutes of brief snippets from it. For this reason, I have since bought the special edition and the full hour of additional material is well worth having.