Destination Moon (Irving Pichel 1950)
Posted on July 30 at 10.54, 2008 by Eric Mahleb
Destination Moon, co-written by the great Robert Heinlein, is a reasonably good effort at a depiction of the first human flight to the Moon. It certainly does not reach the level of sobriety and all-around professional filmmaking of such classics as The Thing from Another World (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) or Forbidden Planet (1956), but it nevertheless tries very hard to convey (more or less) accurately the human and technical challenges of reaching the moon.
In between the amusing standard 1950s silliness of some of the acting and dialogues and the irritating shallow displays of courage and patriotism, there are some interesting moments and one can’t help but being impressed by the amount of care that went into the special effects and in trying to understand the science behind reaching the Earth’s only natural satellite. One has to bear in mind that this film was shot several years before the Soviet Union’s Luna and Sputnik Programs produced their first results and 19 years before NASA succeeded in sending the first astronauts to the moon. Last but not least, it would be another 3 years before Tintin walked on the Moon!
It is refreshing to be reminded of a time when people were truly excited about progress and technology and still dreamt about the future.
My vote: 
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