Of All Mankind

Apollo 11 is a timely and important exploration of openness and globalism

During the climatic scene of Apollo 11, Todd Douglas Miller’s excellent new documentary about NASA’s moon landing mission, the filmmaker cuts to a scene in Mission Control boasting a surfeit of celebratory American flags waving triumphantly in the air. In its grainy film stock presentation it’s as if Childe Hassam’s The Avenue in the Rain has been transposed into the sterile white interior of the room. There is plenty of good reason for this happy burst of patriotic fervor. The Americans have just successfully sent men to the moon and returned them safely back home. This type of accomplishment can all too easily, and very often is, the source of a petty cultural chauvinism. Resting gently under the surface of Miller’s film, however, if we’re to engage in a Straussian reading of the picture, is an alternative, expansive and cosmopolitan view of what it means to be an American and what America means in the wider world.

The American flag and American achievement are inescapable parts of Apollo 11. At no time, however, does the film sag into sloppy rah-rah superpatriotism. Instead, Miller often pairs images of the flag or talk of American brilliance with a message stressing humanity’s common heritage. Take, for instance, the two most iconic moments of the moon landing: Neil…