Sputnik Mania

2007

1h 32m

Documentary

List

95%

22 Reviews

Tomatometer

79%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

The Soviet Union's Sputnik program impacts the world in 1950 and still today.

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Critics Consensus

Featuring riveting footage, Sputnik Mania is an informative, well-made piece that effectively captures the mood during the height of the Cold War.

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David Fear

Time Out

Rated: 3/5

Nov 17, 2011

Full Review

Wesley Morris

Boston Globe

Sputnik Mania plays, discreetly, like a negative love story between superpowers. Sure they moved on to other enemies, but they still haven't gotten over each other.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 13, 2008

Full Review

Lou Lumenick

New York Post

For those too young to remember, Sputnik Mania documents the fear and anxiety that gripped the United States half a century ago when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite in October 1957.

Rated: 2.5/4

Mar 14, 2008

Full Review

Harvey S. Karten

Compuserve

The sharply edited film, which includes (happily) just a few talking heads but mostly exciting archival celluloid and campy stock is a love letter to Ike Eisenhower.

Rated: B+

Oct 18, 2008

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Tenley Woodman

Boston Herald

Rated: B+

Oct 18, 2008

Full Review

Sean P. Means

Salt Lake Tribune

Director David Hoffman marshals his information into an absorbing story, adroitly narrated by Liev Schreiber, that captures the fears and the hopes of the dawn of the Space Age.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 20, 2008

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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 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 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 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 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 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 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

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David Hoffman

Director

Liev Schreiber

Narrator

David Hoffman

Writer

Paul Dickson

Writer

Lindsey Palatino

Writer

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Synopsis

The Soviet Union's Sputnik program impacts the world in 1950 and still today.

Director: David Hoffman
Screenwriter: David Hoffman, Paul Dickson, Lindsey Palatino
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): May 23, 2017
Runtime: 1h 32m