Dark Side of the Moon

February 2, 2007 9:57 PM

Stanley Kubrick'sinvolvement in the space program. Did we go to the moon? Donald Rumsfeld,Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger tell all. via
posted by hortense (21 comments total)

I am playing this one straight so as not to spoil it. The ending credits finally give it all away.
posted by hortense at 10:01 PM on February 2, 2007

Do I have to watch all 52 minutes to see the end credits and "get" the joke? I dunno, that's a lotta work.

Seriously, it is.

I've got Judge Judy episodes on the TiVo to watch.

But anything Kubrick-related is cool, so I will eventually watch the full video! Thanks for posting!
posted by newfers at 10:24 PM on February 2, 2007

This is incredibly well done.
posted by stbalbach at 10:48 PM on February 2, 2007

Definitely worth watching. Thanks, hortense.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:03 PM on February 2, 2007

I am not sure FPI thinks it is a joke!
posted by hortense at 11:05 PM on February 2, 2007

A joke? These are peoples lives.
posted by stbalbach at 11:38 PM on February 2, 2007

Extraordinary! I was getting all up in arms pissed off about it. Who are these people!? I figured out what was going on as the film drew to a close, but I was perfectly wound up for a while.

It's so good, I was able to set aside my usual VideoFilter indignation.
posted by aladfar at 12:32 AM on February 3, 2007

This was very clever.
posted by zorro astor at 12:41 AM on February 3, 2007

Isn't that "We Guard the American Dream" song taken from Wag the Dog (about, among other things, the government faking footage to ? And David Bowman is the main character of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dimitri Muffley? Muffley was the president in Dr. Strangelove. "He had gone insane and cut himself off from all contact with the outside." Maybe a couple of those "Vietnamese" people were actually Vietnamese. The narrator can't help but do his American accent. There are hints all the way through.
posted by jiawen at 2:41 AM on February 3, 2007

...to manipulate public sentiments.)

Grr, poor editing.
posted by jiawen at 2:41 AM on February 3, 2007

Do I have to watch all 52 minutes to see the end credits and "get" the joke?

The joke is already pretty obvious when they play back the "real" conversation that took place on the moon. I still watched the whole thing just because it was so mind boggling that they got Rumsfeld/Aldrin/Kissinger to take part in it.
posted by juv3nal at 2:47 AM on February 3, 2007

Well, thanks for nothing.
posted by BeerFilter at 6:03 AM on February 3, 2007

I didn't see it as Rumsfeld/Aldrin/Kissinger cooperating so much as being edited to appear to cooperate. There was a lot of "he did this" and "he said that" without using names. I do wonder whether those clips were taken from other things, or the director did specifically interview them for this film, but asked questions about other things to give him material to edit.

Interesting... thanks for the post.
posted by The Deej at 8:08 AM on February 3, 2007

Well I don't think Rumsfeld / Kissinger / Haig knew what they were taking part in, I think they thought they were taking part in a documentary about the various, real, Nixon paranoia-fuelled hijinks.

Great link, though I think if no one had told me it was a joke, I probably would've turned it off in the first 5 minutes.
posted by condour75 at 8:09 AM on February 3, 2007

uh, what the deej said.
posted by condour75 at 8:35 AM on February 3, 2007

You said it better.
posted by The Deej at 8:36 AM on February 3, 2007

"Kissinger flattered him, telling him that Dr. Strangelove was one of Nixon's favorite films"
posted by b1tr0t at 8:54 AM on February 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Fun, thanks!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:46 AM on February 3, 2007

Great little exercise on the use of propaganda techniques in documentaries.
posted by storybored at 11:24 AM on February 3, 2007

That was fantastic.

They had me up until a little after Chapel appeared, although there were two clues that I shouldn't have ignored:

1) the speech for "one small step for man" is well known to be "one small step for A man" and

2) The photo of Kuberic on the moon is in colour on a a black and white photograph (supposed to be on same role of film as the photo preceding it).

Excellent documentary.
posted by furtive at 6:53 PM on February 3, 2007

Thanks for posting this. I read about it just after the CBC aired it, and wished I had seen it.

The names of the interview subjects and other characters are an amusing tipoff to any film buff.
posted by pmurray63 at 9:33 PM on February 4, 2007