Dark Side of the Moon
Dark Side of the Moon
| 16 October 2002 (USA)
Dark Side of the Moon Trailers

A French documentary or, one might say more accurately, a mockumentary, by director William Karel which originally aired on Arte in 2002 with the title Opération Lune. The basic premise for the film is the theory that the television footage from the Apollo 11 Moon landing was faked and actually recorded in a studio by the CIA with help from director Stanley Kubrick.

Reviews
Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?
Manthast Absolutely amazing
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
paudical I suppose I am more cynical than most but I'm still surprised anyone could be properly taken in by this film. I had my doubts from the very start but the jig was well and truly up after Neil Armstrong's bad jokes on the moon. I'll admit Kubrick is one of my favourite directors so I got the in jokes regarding the names Jack Torrance and David Bowman. Later on the documentary really enters into ridiculous territory! Basically I think it's a clever idea which was impossible to expand into a lengthy documentary. I didn't find the hoodwinking funny, just pretentious. The filmmakers obviously enjoyed toying with less well informed viewers like a cat with a mouse. I found it boring
happyreflex I have to write something because I can't let the existing review be the only one. This is not a set of anti-American lies passed off as a documentary; it's a straightforward mockumentary. You were supposed to know that.That said, the writer gave us a nice little conspiracy theory story, but I really didn't think the results were all that interesting. I felt things turned out kind of stiff in the end. People were too serious about things. Could've used a bit more humor. Forgotten Silver, which comes to mind when discussing this film, shows how a balance could be hit when making a mockumentary of this tone.On an unrelated note, Chomsky > Moore.
imdb-14312 Some of the comments here just prove precisely what the director was trying to say.One of the reasons the show was so good was that it wasn't obvious it was a "mockumentary" until you were well and truly in it. The director just kept sliding up the "mock volume" throughout the entire show. Basically, when all your friends are around and talk about it, you say something like "hey, when did you figure it out?" and one person will say, "I was sucked in. I didn't figure it out until the (obviously American) CIA troops went in under cover and left McDonalds wrappers floating about - about two thirds in", and someone else says they didn't get it till close to then end. Someone else says they sussed it out very early on.But the point is, they all get it sometime. The director keeps hamming it up until he finally goes obvious towards the end. And if you still don't get it, then you probably believe in Santa Claus!!I will say, however, that I can understand English-as-a-second-language-ers not "getting" it because it plays a lot on language cues for satire and they may not be so obvious to someone not fluent in English. I think a lot of the 1/10 people are in this category.One of the best TV shows I've ever seen. 10/10 easily. The only other show that scores 10/10 for me was the TV series The Singing Detective. Somewhat different, mind.
iamjantje The documentary is not about the discussion if the moon landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz is fake. The've been there all right. However there is no actual evidence because of defect equipment. To avoid this setback in 'the race for space' the CIA have used Stanley Kubrick's studios in London to make a few moments of footage which was later on showed to the world as if they where original.This movie shows the world how emergency footage was already shot before the landing and used to impress the world. The information given by such people as Rumsfeld is to me unbelievable..Watch this for start to end, and don't judge based on a few minutes as sarastro... Du taget fejl min Ven, den her film er bare ved!