The Last Man on the Moon review: Quite a trip | JDiff 2015

The Apollo astronaut mentioned in the title is Gene Cernan, who walked on the moon in December 1972 and left his footprints and his daughter's initials in the lunar dust. Mark Craig's documentary pieces together that epic journey using interviews, archival footage and occasional animations.

The Last Man on the Moon does a splendid job of recalling the celebrity and hullabaloo around the space programme. Inevitably, that and the age of most of the subjects brings an autumnal tone to the material. The film, much like the mission, is historically overlooked by such earlier documentaries as In the Shadow of the Moon. On more than one occasion one thinks of Buzz Aldrin's line during his appearance on The Simpsons: "Second comes right after first". But this remains a gripping tale, well told.