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Man's longing for the stars is as old as man himself. For thousands of years, man has dreamed of journeying beyond planet earth. And yet, in less than a hundred years, that dream has become a reality. The progress from weird and wonderful contraptions which hopped and jumped a few inches off the ground to man's first landing on the moon, is one of the most astonishing achievements of the 20th Century. This film is a celebration of that achievement. The Space Movie, made in 1979 at the request of NASA to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's historic journey, was itself a special achievement. First, NASA and The United States National Archive made all the footage (which is now famous the world around) available for the very first time, including never before seen film of the lunar landscape, life aboard the spacecraft, the Space Shuttle, Mars, Venus and beyond. Even more importantly, NASA released the extraordinary (and scary) soundtracks of all the conversations between the astronauts and ground control in Houston. Second, the film's soundtrack was written, arranged and performed by MIKE OLDFIELD. He used extracts from his ground-breaking symphonic tone-poems such as 'Tubular Bells' and 'Hergest Ridge', including previously unreleased orchestral versions, and wound these in and out of the NASA soundtracks together with new music which was eventually released on the CD 'Incantations'. The result is a unique soundtrack for a unique film. No wonder it was described as "the best British film of the year."
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