Sputnik Mania

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Audience Member Doc did a really good job on setting the stage and mood for the paranoia of the Cold War. Highlights were the filmmakers presented the case of how the USA and USSR got into a "pissing" contest over technology, the hubris of assumed tech superiority by the USA, how fear will make people irrational and the pressures 2 very oppossite leaders felt from thier military to build more weapons into an ever escalating arms race towrds oblivion. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Interesting subject matter and nice archive footage, but nothing really groundbreaking. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member This is a great documentary made better by the DVD having some fun extras of period films, propaganda laced and oddly banal in scientific portrayal. It really is a great dissection of the time period and how the world got caught up with the idea of space travel. It really brought insight into cultural reactions and good personal insight into world leaders. It doesn?t just float along with the news regurgitation, it picks its points and edits them together well. The interviews enhance the story and the visuals add flavor. This is how a documentary can be made well in a non-Michael Moore or Ken Burns way. A by-the-book doc done well. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Eisenhower is the hero of this documentary, which shows the post Sputnik craze in America and how the Cold War spiraled out of control for a few months. One wonders how we did not destroy ourselves in those days. Kudos goes to Eisenhower for keeping space a non-military sphere and for staying cool. I doubt any Republican, circa 2015, could do the same. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review walter m "Sputnik Mania" is a compelling documentary about the events following the launch of the first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957. It would have been significantly better if it had provided more information from the Soviet side of the equation, especially including up to the launch, which should have been possible considering the opening of the Russian archives. Talking to Nikita Khruschev's son is a nice touch, however. The documentary takes a different path than "The Right Stuff," showing the military buildup after everybody in the United States wet their pants at the possibility the Soviets could now launch missiles with nuclear warheads directly at America(And I'm sad at the people who I thought were smarter than this), instead of marveling at the human ingenuity it took to make Sputnik possible. This Cold War mentality would not lead to doomsday as thought possible since cooler heads like Khruschev and Eisenhower would prevail but to the horrors of Vietnam. On the plus side, this whole arms race would provide Stanley Kubrick with tons of material... Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member La combinacion de los anho 50-60 con la teconologia se muestran de una manera interesante en este documental. La historia es facil de estudiarla de esta manera, con una hora con veinticiente minutos que equivalen a un bloque de hora en mi colegio, esta deberia ser una manera de contextualizar los sucesos historicos importantes del siglo pasado, como lo es el lanzamiento de Sputnik y la "mania" que creo posteriormente. Los anhos 60 siempre me han atraido, y mas cuando muestran imagenes reales de esta decada tan llena de elementos interesantes (sobretodo artisticos) en este documental, me contenta saber que aprendi sobre el primer satelite lanzado al espacio a traves de un documental tan entretenido como este. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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