Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating overview of the Space Race, 3 Jan 2007
This was one of the two DVDs on the space race in my Christmas stocking. I watched this first (the other being Tom Hanks' From the Earth to the Moon) as I wanted to get the whole story presented to me before I watched the American story in more detail.
There is no doubt that where this series excels is with the Soviet side of things. Presumably this came about as a result of the BBC's co-production with (amongst others) a Russian broadcaster, and easier access to previously secret material. However, there was a huge amount to fit into only four hours with the result that a lot of the landmarks are only briefly covered, or are even skipped completely.
The series has quite a Korolev bias, which whilst not too obvious in the first episode, takes hold and becomes evident as the series progresses. Not that I necessarily think that was a bad thing; this series covers old ground as far as the American side of the space race is concerned, but I found myself somewhat awestruck by Korolev's genius and vision.
I thought that the series was far too short to cover this subject in the detail that is justified. If you are going to tell this story, then do it well, and don't hold back by trying to save money. Tom Hanks tells the American story in twelve hours, whilst the BBC tried to do the whole thing from both perspectives in just four. Why not do it like the much acclaimed 'World at War' (26 episodes), probably the definitive WW2 story?
I thought the format was rather good. It is a drama documentary, so the historical events are acted, and the story is also narrated. The BBC have done a number of such programmes, and whilst not to everybody's taste, I quite like this method of storytelling.
Overall, I am glad to own this. It didn't tell me a great deal of new information where the US side of the race is concerned, but it really brings the Soviet story to life. I grew up in the Cold War era, so can understand and remember the competetive rivalry and paranoia that existed between the USA and USSR. Younger viewers may not remember it and so it may seem quite bizarre. If so, then I think that would make the series all the more compelling. Whilst it may be inaccurate in a few areas (as other reviewers have observed), this didn't detract for me, and I generally enjoyed watching it.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Space Race (DVD and Book), 20 Dec 2005
The Book by Deborah Cadbury is a must read - full of unexpected detail and a brilliant gift for your History Channel buff. The DVD is also imrpressive, but ovioulsly a cut down edit to Debroah's book - it misses some of the trivia but makes up for it with striking archival footage and brilliantly integrated reinacted footage anplus some marvellous casting and acted scenes. World class and well done to the BBC production teams.
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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unfortunately inaccurate, 1 Mar 2006
By A Customer
The production values, cinematography, acting and quality of archival footage are all excellent, however, the story itself is filled with factual errors. The trouble starts in the first five minutes when the Nazis are shown launching a V2 by cranking up a launch stand, running into the bushes and pressing a button. This is totally inaccurate. Although the V2 could be launched from almost any location it required that the ground be leveled, then a herd of trucks would show up with liquid oxygen and alchohol. Ground crews would have to heat permanganate in electric heaters and then the launch itself would be controlled from a mobile launch truck which looked like an armored car. This process took several hours and involved getting the fuel trains in the neighbourhood of the launch site so the tanker trucks would not lose everything to evaporation. Making it look like all it needed was a couple of soldiers and a "Nintendo" launch control defeated the whole point of this series, to show how difficult rocketry was.Dieter Hutzel is shown surrending to the American's, it was Magnus von Braun. Von Braun surrendered with his arm in a giant cast which is one of the most famous images of him. This was omitted and although it's not really important it stood out like a sore thumb. Later Von Braun is portrayed as the guy who is forced to send the Apollo 8 crew around the moon. He didn't make that decision. There is also a reference that Apollo 8 was the second Saturn V launch, it was the third. All the way through the movie the ground crews are shown watching live TV pictures of dogs and monkeys and astronauts during their flights, no such technology existed at the time. As far as I know there were no engine failures on Apollo 4, the first Saturn V launch, although there were POGO problems. The Russian material clearly benefitted from Russian involvement in the series, the American and German side of things seemed inaccurate and inadequate. The photo-op of Von Braun in his SS uniform seemed totally gratuitous, no picture has ever appeared of him in the uniform since it is believed he only wore it once, the day he was given it. His arrest and imprisonment by Himmler was totally ignored. The fact he was forced to wear the uniform was ignored. It is just left as implied that he was a "NAZI". His failures were disproportionately overplayed while Korolev's story seemed much more even-handed. The fact that the Saturn rocket was launched 32 times and never failed is totally ignored, instead five minutes is spent on the "champagne-cork" Mercury-Redstone failure. Alan Shepard is shown to be constantly angry at Von Braun for being timid but Shepard was a good friend of Von Braun. I feel this was a missed opportunity, good acting and great production (except for the really annoying tendency to "squash" the aspect ratio of the old NASA films to fit the new widescreen format which made Saturn and Redstone look stunted). If they had done the Von Braun story with the same passion as the Korolev one this could have been a real classic.
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