"The Dish" is one of those amusing, charming Ozzie movies about idiosyncratic small towns down under (like "Muriel's Wedding," "The Coca Cola Kid," etc. with no dark undertones).
This one pads out a bit the story of how an incongruous radio satellite in a sheep paddock played a crucial link for the Apollo moon landing TV telecast. Only a couple of things really happened to make any suspense, so eccentric characters are thrown in. Their irreverence and down-to-earth attitude, especially about politicians, keeps it from being schmaltzy.
"Puddy" from Seinfeld does the NASA guy quite nicely.
It's odd for an American to see a movie about the Apollo mission with only a brief shot of Walter Cronkite as he's so synonymous with watching all the space flights on TV.
(originally written 4/14/2001)
This one pads out a bit the story of how an incongruous radio satellite in a sheep paddock played a crucial link for the Apollo moon landing TV telecast. Only a couple of things really happened to make any suspense, so eccentric characters are thrown in. Their irreverence and down-to-earth attitude, especially about politicians, keeps it from being schmaltzy.
"Puddy" from Seinfeld does the NASA guy quite nicely.
It's odd for an American to see a movie about the Apollo mission with only a brief shot of Walter Cronkite as he's so synonymous with watching all the space flights on TV.
(originally written 4/14/2001)