mark.waltz If NASA has its way, according to this George Pal movie, the United States has the obligation to get to the moon first in order to prevent us from being attacked as well as attack from outer space if necessary. No mention of keeping peace or preventing future world wars. It is as if we learned nothing from recent wars-conquer or be conquered these scientists believe. This is the frame that gets the movie started, but unfortunately, that's the end of that concern as the film progresses and the astronauts make their way into the unknown abyss of our galaxy. What they encounter on the moon is simply to return home, but can they? Fortunately, they do not encounter "moon men" or other creatures, just the sight of the earth in the distance. This is not a special effects masterpiece; the photography seems more animated than the popular "stop motion" effects used at the time. As a curiosity, this is worth a view, but will never be among the classic visions of outer-space during the beginning of that genre.

dbdumonteil "Destination moon" is a serious movie,made with care,with a small budget compared to today's ones;there is no female part,no love interest ,and it sometimes looks like documentary style" .Only the ending is story like ,stealing the "drawing sorts" trick from Fritz Lang 's 'Frau Im Mond "(th woman on the moon).I'M almost sure that Hergé ,who wrote the adventures of Tintin,saw this movie :he began his "Objectif lune/On A Marché Sur La Lune" circa 1950 and there are many similarities:the landing of the rocket,the rescue of the man floating in space ,the lack of oxygen,etc.The cover of the reissue is a model of taste,looking like the covers of the old comic books of the time

jtwcosmos "That isn't public opinion - it's a job of propaganda!"This is the story of how the Americans got to the Moon. It is also the first science-fiction movie that approaches the reality of outer space from a scientific perspective, or so they say. All I can say is that it is flat, stiff and boring, but at least it has pretty colors. And it won an Oscar for special effects.The story is quite simple. The Americans build a space rocket and send it to the Moon. It is nuclear powered, huge and shiny. It is ambitions, it is gonna take the combined effort of the entire might of the United States Industry and it's gonna cost them every bit of blood, sweat and tears they've got, but they'll make it.The propaganda is spread thick all over this ship ... err ... movie. There are all kinds of enemies out there who want the United States to fail and who would stop at nothing to make that happen. Fortunately for them, they don't have to try too hard, because the bad script and the stiff acting kill this mission far more successfully than they ever could. If you feel you're going too fast, some day, just watch this movie. It will slow you down in a jiffy. For example, they have a guy trying on a pair of boots for 5 minutes. Talk about a slow dresser! Obviously they do that only as long as they want to make a point, because after that they walk about with a spring in their heel, just like Fred Astaire on the ceiling. Aside from that, everything is just dandy.This is the first in a series of science-fiction movies produced by George Pal, who is also responsible for classics like "When Worlds Collide", "The War of the Worlds" "The Time Machine" and "Conquest of Space", of which I've seen the first three and intend to watch the fourth. I understand that this movie has sparked the crazy decades of science-fiction movies in the '50s and the '60s and if you decide to watch it then you will also understand why they had to come up with a whole bunch of monsters, alien invaders and 50 foot half naked babes: because otherwise they would have been just as boring as this movie is, obviously.Destination Moon. A great piece of history but... not much else. 6.3/10 is just about right, but only for history's sake.

dougdoepke In 1950, Destination Moon was in a battle with Rocketship X-M for the earliest release date. There had been little like them before. You'd probably have to go back to the 30's and Flash Gordon for prior space travel films and a time when rocketships were considered kids' fare because space travel seemed such a far off reality.Moon missed out by a couple months in the release battle, but together with the more fictional Rocketship, helped usher in a whole decade of mainly teenage sci-fi. Actually, Moon is in a different sub-category since it tried to be more reality based, though its concessions to commercial values are all too obvious.Nonetheless, Moon managed to convey basic principles of space travel, including a look at a Technicolor lunar landscape, both within a popular entertainment context. For this 11-year old, the 90-minutes proved genuinely fascinating; at the same time, it introduced me to a whole new arena of movie imagination, and I expect it did the same for thousands of others, both young and old.In that sense, the movie represents a milestone in post-war film fare, and just as importantly, served as a popular introduction to the so-called space race of the 1960's. Note too, the allusions to Cold War competition for space supremacy and its military value, another timely aspect then on the national horizon.Too bad the film has become so obscure. Sure, the effects have dated in the meantime, while much of the byplay with Sweeney (Wesson) now seems a silly concession to commercialism. Nonetheless, the movie remains a milestone in the evolution of modern science-fiction, and for many of us oldsters, a striking introduction to the space age.