Eugene Cernan is a fine ambassador for space exploration, especially in an age where our household-name astronauts are mostly fictional (I’m looking at you, Mark Watney). As the commander of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon in 1972, Cernan is clearly still in awe of what America achieved during those cowboy years — but he also speaks, with the melancholy that results from several decades of hindsight, about the havoc it wreaked on the personal lives of the astronauts.
Director Mark Craig assembled a wealth of archival footage and home videos featuring Cernan, originally a naval aviator, during his years in the Apollo space program. He intercuts them with narration and reflection from the now 81-year-old retiree — and a soaring, “Martian”-rivaling soundtrack from composer Lorne Balfe.