I watched this film last weekend for the first time in forever and I have to say I loved it. It’s an absolutely charming bit of sci-fi that must have stunned audiences back in the day with its surprisingly accurate speculation about man’s first trip to the moon.
In regards to the space suits, this is one of the earliest if not the first appearances of this particular classic piece of 50’s design and there’s even a scene within the first twenty minutes or so where they explain the bright colours as a way for each of the astronauts to recognise one another when they are on the moon.
It also explains that this is just the covering that goes over the top of a pressure suit, acknowledging some of the science of space travel that usually gets glossed over in the name of style and story.
If you were plotting a course through the history of sci-fi space films, and that’s sort of what we’re doing here by default, then this would have to be one of the earliest and most important films ever made.
If you haven’t yet then you should and as soon as possible!
If you were plotting a course through the history of sci-fi space films, and that’s sort of what we’re doing here by default, then this would have to be one of the earliest and most important films ever made.
If you haven’t yet then you should and as soon as possible!
This film also set up a convention which was re-used in 2001: red spacesuit is the commander, yellow for first officer.
ReplyDeleteIn real life, from Apollo 13 on, the commander's suit was decorated with red stripes while the lunar module pilot's suit was left plain. Usually, identification patterns do not rely on color because you might need to see it with a black and white camera, but it works very well in film.
Interesting. I always wondered about the red stripes and now I know
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