{"id":39997,"date":"2017-08-10T09:56:40","date_gmt":"2017-08-10T09:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=39997"},"modified":"2017-08-10T10:09:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-10T10:09:00","slug":"the-farthest-film-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/movies\/the-farthest-film-review.html","title":{"rendered":"The Farthest: Film Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Farthest: Film Review<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Emer Reynolds’ documentary recounts the continuing story of the Voyager space mission.<\/span>
\nYou don\u2019t have to be a science geek to love Emer Reynolds\u2019 fascinating documentary about NASA\u2019s landmark Voyager mission that launched two unmanned spacecraft to explore the outer reaches of the solar system. Being given a limited theatrical release in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the 1977 launch, The Farthest should garner greater appreciative audiences when it airs later this month on PBS.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis may be, in the long run, the only evidence that we ever existed,\u201d comments one of the many NASA scientists who worked on the project about the spacecraft that might outlive the human race. Indeed, they\u2019re still continuing their mission four decades after their launch, having now entered interstellar space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the plethora of talking heads featured, The Farthest feels more cinematic than many documentaries thanks to the effective CGI images depicting Voyager 1 and 2\u2019s journeys and the photographs they\u2019ve taken over the years. They were originally supposed to travel only to Saturn and Jupiter, but a rare planetary alignment, one that takes place only every 176 years, allowed NASA to extend their mission to Uranus and Neptune and beyond. (That the scientists pronounce \u201cUranus\u201d with an emphasis on the first syllable admittedly takes some of the fun out it.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The film is filled with amazing facts, such as that the two Voyagers\u2019 computing technology was not that of a smartphone, as has become the clich\u00e9, but rather more like a key fob. Or that ordinary aluminum foil was added at the last minute for the purpose of shielding them from radiation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the documentary focuses on the \u201cGolden Record,\u201d the LP-like disc (made of metal rather than vinyl) included on both Voyagers. With a design spearheaded by famed scientist Carl Sagan, it featured such things as greetings to whatever aliens came across it, recorded in dozens of languages, as well as photographs representing the diversity of life on Earth and musical selections from around the globe, including Chuck Berry\u2019s \u201cJohny B. Goode\u201d (the famed rocker is shown performing his signature tune at the launch party as dozens of NASA employees gleefully danced along). Berry was far more magnanimous in donating his record to the project than The Beatles, who refused to allow any of their music to be used for interplanetary purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The record also included a line, \u201cHello from the children of planet Earth,\u201d uttered by Sagan\u2019s then 7-year-old son who reminisces about the casual manner in which he recorded it. It\u2019s but one of many amusing details about the record\u2019s creation, such as that a planned photograph of a naked man and a naked pregnant woman (one figure involved in the project explains that pregnant women weren\u2019t considered sexy) was nixed by NASA because of its supposed prurience.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scientists\u2019 joy as they discuss the mission proves infectious. \u201cVoyager, to me, was Homeric,\u201d one rhapsodizes. The spacecraft beamed back revelatory pictures of the four planets and their moons, although much to everyone\u2019s disappointment, it turned out that Uranus wasn\u2019t particularly photogenic.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Farthest ultimately proves a welcome and invaluable reminder, in these budget-challenged times, that space exploration is of boundless importance. One of the film\u2019s most powerfully moving moments deals with Sagan\u2019s insistence that, after completing its mission to Jupiter and Saturn, one of the Voyager\u2019s cameras be turned back to Earth. The resulting images proved of no scientific value, but as Sagan poetically explained, they revealed the planet resembling a small blue dot as the place on which \u201ceveryone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives \u2026 on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.\u201d If that doesn\u2019t get you thinking, nothing will.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  • Production company: Crossing the Line Productions<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Distributor: Abramorama<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Director-screenwriter: Emer Reynolds<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Producers: John Murray, Clare Stronge<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Executive producers: Sean B. Carroll, Dennis Liu, Keith Potter, John Rubin<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Director of photography: Kate McCullough<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Editor: Tony Cranstoun<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Production designer: Joe Fallover<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Composer: Ray Harman<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/review\/farthest-1028187<\/span><\/p>\n

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