Talk about a perfect sequel, released during the current pandemic and haphazard quarantining of many, to Todd Douglas Miller and company's prior man-to-the-Moon documentary "Apollo 11" (2019), which was well timed itself coming on the 50th anniversary of the event. It's just this sort of observational, archival-footage approach to documentary filmmaking of important history that should be celebrated by the Academy Awards and the like, but I won't hold my breath for this short follow-up being so honored given that the feature-length documentary was unaccountably not nominated for an Oscar (and I swear if they also dismiss "Totally Under Control" (2020) in a few days here, I'm going to write the documentary categories off entirely).
Anyways, "Apollo 11: Quarantine" is further evidence that what we've gone through in the past year of this pandemic--quarantines, PPE, disinfectant and all--isn't all that new. Once again, Neil Armstrong was already there and done that. Had we all taken just 21 days, too, to prevent the spread of the Andromeda Strain, perhaps we wouldn't be where we are in 2021. Then again, only two-thirds of Americans even know who Armstrong was--and this from a poll during the 50th anniversary year, the year of the prior "Apollo 11" doc and a year after the Ryan Gosling movie (from Gallup polling, and only half identified him correctly ten years earlier)--so right there, no more questions needed, at least one-third of Americans are completely stupid, but I digress. Among the newly-released footage, it's also nice that someone thought to pan down from a shot of the Moon to the astronauts quarantined in a trailer, and there's a reflexive shot of a manned TV camera at one point. Ending with Buzz Aldrin waxing poetic, that "We walked on the Moon," at the end before the joint session of Congress and editing in Moon and space images from the trip is an appreciated finishing touch.