Armstrong (Blu-ray)

Having a great, almost life-long love of astronomy and spaceflight, this DVD advertised on the OnBuy.com website really caught my eye, so I just had to by it!
I certainly wasn't left disappointed! The entire DVD footage is very thoughtfully put together, following Neil's journey through life, from tiny tot, through his school, college and university life and onto military service life, then finally his astronaut career. All the time, this story is punctuated with all sorts of tales from family, friends and colleagues, all building the figure of a quiet, maybe sensitive man with a strong sense of duty and doing what was right. It almost paints a picture of the perfect human being, though I suspect that Mr Armstrong would never have agreed with that opinion. This DVD really did it for me; a fantastic, almost breathtaking illustration of what his life entailed, even in the early days of raising a handicapped daughter who unfortunately didn't live past three years of age and remained a great loving memory to Neil and his wife for all time. The quality of the original archive film snippets from his US Navy life, through Korea and onto the space programme is still breathtaking after all these years and includes a lot of footage that I hadn't seen before, especially regarding his near-disasterous demise when he and fellow astronaut Dave Scott's Gemini 8 very nearly span itself to death after some major instrument malfunction in the cold of space. It was only Armstrong's cool, calculated thinking that allowed him to 'fly' the spacraft out of danger, thus saving both astronauts' lives.
Added to all this fantastic feast of filmation is the spectacular and thoughtful backing music score. This is virtually there in the background throughout the movie and, in my eyes, makes all the difference.
Many thanks too for Speedyhen's super, fast service in getting the DVD to me within a day or two!
Buy this DVD. You certainly won't be disappointed, even if you're not a space buff.