Apollo 11

image for Apollo 11

Short takes

Not recommended under 8; parental guidance to 10 (possible lack of interest)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Apollo 11
  • a review of Apollo 11 completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 22 July 2019.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 While highly educational, the detailed account of the Apollo 11 mission may be boring and difficult for children under 8 to follow.
Children aged 8–10 A few explanations may be required for some children between the ages of 8-10

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Apollo 11
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Suitable for general audiences
Length: 93 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Apollo 11 is a documentary using actual audio recordings and historical footage, including some never before seen images of NASA’s lunar landing. Everything is covered, from the on-going preparations made pre-launch to the intricacies of the mission itself and the astronaut’s re-entry to Earth. Viewers are given a detailed glimpse at what was once the most dangerous and difficult mission humans had ever embarked upon. As well as gaining a better understanding of the three main astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins) and what they went through, viewers are shown all the teams working together around the clock at both the Kennedy Space Centre and Houston Control and the countless individuals whose roles played a pivotal part in the success of the mission. The movie conveys a sense of what the world was like at the time of the lunar landing and how achieving this goal was not only a victory for the United States but for all humanity.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Teamwork, the interconnectedness of humanity, humankind’s constant desire to explore further and farther than ever before, courage when facing the unknown and the fulfilment of dreams.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • No violence was noted in this movie.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • It is unlikely anything in this movie would scare or disturb children under five.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • It is unlikely anything in this movie would scare or disturb children between the ages of five to eight.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • It is unlikely anything in this movie would scare or disturb children between the ages of eight to thirteen.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

It is unlikely anything in this movie would scare or disturb children over the age of thirteen.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • No products were noted in this movie.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • No sexual references were noted in this movie.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • No nudity or sexual activity were noted in this movie.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • A man in the control centre is seen smoking a cigar and cigars are used to celebrate.
  • A man watching the launch drinks beer from a can.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Use of the term “damn”.

In a nutshell

Apollo 11 is a historical documentary comprised of actual footage from this unprecedented mission and lunar landing. This movie will likely appeal to space enthusiasts, historians and older, mature, audiences.

The main messages from this movie are to quite literally reach for the stars, to work as a team and that with great persistence, determination and courage anything is possible.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Teamwork
  • Dedication
  • Curiosity
  • Trust
  • Courage
  • Hope and Gratitude

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of working together to achieve a goal. While three men made the mission to the moon, countless others made it possible and had any one of those individuals not done their job the journey could have ended quite differently.