Dark Side of the Moon

2002 "Top secret."
7.6| 0h52m| en
Details

A French documentary or, one might say more accurately, a mockumentary, by director William Karel which originally aired on Arte in 2002 with the title Opération Lune. The basic premise for the film is the theory that the television footage from the Apollo 11 Moon landing was faked and actually recorded in a studio by the CIA with help from director Stanley Kubrick.

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Trailers & Clips

Also starring Philippe Faure

Also starring Vernon Walters

Reviews

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.
Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
sjensen-4 When i first saw this documentary I was appalled - i was very angry with the American government (under Richard Nixon). In popular culture it is many times suggested that the Americans faked the lunar-missions. Many people believed that the Apollo-missions were filmed in a studio in area 51. And when i saw this documentary i was fully convinced. In the doc Kubricks widow Christiana Kubrick, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Alexander Haig, Richard Helms, Henry Kissinger and even Donald Rumsfeld all admit more or less that the moon-landings were a hoax. But when saw it a second time I wasn't so sure about the doc was a real doc or not. In the end of the doc - when the credits are shown - we are shown outtakes of the doc. In the outtakes there are scenes were you easy can see that the people are not taking this seriously. There is one scene were Donald Rumsfeld laughs and ask the film crew: "I thought you were a real documentary". And it is also revealed that many of the men, who in the documentary are portrayed as experts and witnesses, are in fact actors. The truth came to me a year or two later, when I in a science magazine read that the documentary was made merely to show how easy it is to manipulate and fool people to think certain things. I once also believed that the Americans did not land on the moon.Partly because of this documentary.Much footage from the moon can very well be fake. That is because the could not film there, supposedly, because there was too hot and too cold.And then there is the thing about the wind on the flag.....But then there is the big problem: The Astronauts took home hundreds of kilos of rocks from the moon - KILOS. And the rocks ARE FROM THE MOON. The rocks have been spread around the world to all countries to further science. And there are for a fact from the moon, all laboratories from around the world has confirmed it: The isotopes of the basic elements of the rock could never have come from earth - only the moon.How do all you crack-put-theorists explain that?How come that many professors and astronomers from around all believe that USA did go to the moon??? Can you explain that (the only ones who disbelieve all this are all out off a job, and needs money)At first when I heard that I was enraged. I was angry that the doc fooled me so easily. But when i cooled down I began to think. This is a very good doc to show to people and then tell them later it is a hoax. Because then they will learn not to trust everything they hear. The doc is very good made - and everyone deserves to see
aidanhell incredibly clever documentary about the ease with which we are manipulated by the media, and how the media is in turn used as a tool of manipulation. really worth seeing and, watch for clues!
jpceulemans-2 We choose to go to the Moon, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. With these historical words of the late JFK, the race to the moon was officially started. Almost seven years later, this race was decided when the whole world witnessed how Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on another world. But was everything really the way it looked? This documentary starts from a simple premise: when Stanley Kubrick wanted to shoot the candle light scenes for Barry Lyndon, he needed a special lens that costs several millions of dollars and only one such lens existed and was owned by NASA, and they used it for tracking satellites in complete darkness.The ease with which the NASA was ready to borrow this piece of espionage equipment to Kubrick set the researcher on a hunt for the truth behind the moon landing and the part that Kubrick had played in it. Exposing fact after fact, the director William Karel explains the viewer how the evidence that was right there all along under our noses proves that the moon landing was actually staged in a studio and that the original plan of Nixon, who was president at that time, was to make everyone who participated in this staging, disappear. He shows testimonies of Buzz Aldrin, Richard Nixon, Stanley Kubrick, Henry Kissinger and even Donald Rumsfeld to prove his theory. ****MAJOR SPOILER**** If you want to enjoy this documentary to fullest, then please watch it first before you read on. OK you are either stubborn or you have watched it already. The topic is of course not very original, the movie Capricorn One already covered a staged Mars landing, and there is a lot of literature that tries to prove that the NASA moon landing happened in the studio. And this one is of course a mockumentary but the clever thing about it is that it gradually feeds the viewer with inconsistencies and absurdities which get more and more noticeable as the story unfolds. It starts with subtle things like a view of an ordinary 28-85mm Carl Zeiss lens costing less than 1000$, a French speaking head of the CIA and a mission control team member named David Bowman ending in such ridiculous claims that in order to eliminate the 4 remaining witnesses, an army force far greater than that used in the first Gulf war was deployed. And for the intellectually challenged viewer, at the end some bloopers are shown between the end credits that show that certain parts were played by actors.Still, by using a clever mix of real footage, excepts of interviews with famous people and fake interviews with fictional key figures played by actors, Karel manages to keep many less informed viewers unaware for a while that they are watching a hoax.And depending on how keen and sceptical you are, the time for you to expose this hoax will be shorter. And once you realize that you were being fooled, it suddenly turns into a very funny joke. Even if you decided to read the spoiler, you will still be entertained by the absurdities near the end.**** END SPOILER **** I advise you to watch it with a few friends and I am certain that you will equally enjoy their reactions as much as you will enjoy this documentary. It is certainly worth a second view in order to capture all the details.
Tonyvdb As I began to watch this film, I did not know what it was about.The further this documentary proceeded however, the further my mouth fell open ! During this documentary, I kept thinking :"Why didn't I know about this? Why hadn't I, a big Kubrick and space-fan, never heard of this before?". I watched it almost the same way I would watch the landing of a flying saucer.I will not reveal any "plot"-details, but this one thing I can tell : before you watch : try not to know what it is about. Let yourself be carried away and watch it until the very end (and do not forget the end titles!) Without any doubt 10 out of 10.