November 28, 2022
FILM: GOOD NIGHT OPPY
DIRECTED BY RYAN WHITE
RATING: 4 STARS OUT OF 4
By Dan Pal
Haven’t we all wondered what it might be like to visit a planet like Mars? Hollywood has offered many such fictitious missions over the years, most notably Ridley Scott’s The Martian. Of course, the only “beings” ever to actually visit the planet are Spirit and Opportunity which were launched into space by NASA in 2003. These two roving machines were only supposed to transmit data back to Earth for 90 days but Spirit lasted eight years and Opportunity, also known as “Oppy,” lasted fifteen years. Just a reminder… this is reality, NOT a Hollywood movie! The new documentary Good Night Oppy, which had five big wins at the recent Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, does a fantastic job of tracing the development, launch, discoveries, issues, and eventual “deaths” of these rovers. Essentially, this is a biopic, but of man-made machines instead of people.
The amount of footage of this mission that is included here is quite astounding. There are scenes from the original planning meetings, the building of the rovers, and the launches. Plenty of video footage was shot in the NASA control room in these early years and all of it is presented at the same level of visual quality as that which was shot in the late 2010s. Clearly, there was a mission to also document this entire experience and director Ryan White does a great job of pulling together all of the steps along way. Of course, there are also interviews with dozens of people that worked on the mission including scientists, Rover drivers (similar to those who “fly” drones today), and students who began their careers as part of this mission. While most of those involved are white, there is increasing diversity within the NASA team, especially in the male to female ratio. But what’s impressive is how many people remained on board for the entire mission.
Any good documentary today is also going to need some dramatic moments to fulfill audience needs for a “real” movie experience. White spares none of this. There are many tense moments when the Rovers encounter solar flares, dust storms, and winter shut downs. At one point the connection to Spirit is lost. At another, Oppy gets stuck in the Mars sand. All of this is very well told with sharp editing and moving cinematography. It also helps that White interviews people with a LOT of personality. Many become characters in and of themselves throughout the film.
Music is also cleverly placed throughout the film. Most fun is hearing the songs those in mission control would use to “wake up” Spirit and Oppy so they could continue their missions each day, such as The B-52s Roam, The Beatles Here Comes the Sun, ABBA’s SOS (during one of the more dramatic moments), and of course, Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. In addition to sparking up the Rovers, the use of these songs in the film keep the energy flowing. There aren’t any slow-downs in the proceedings here.
One issue I have, although to say it’s an issue is a bit of a misnomer, is the use of CGI to tell part of this story. Because we’ve seen so many Mars set films and TV shows, including the recent season of the Apple+ series For All Mankind, we’re used to seeing depictions of the planet that have been partially realized thanks to images received from Spirit and Oppy. But there are major computer enhancements used here to show us the Rovers in motion covering the vast space of the planet. This takes some adjusting to as these images are interacting with real live shots from the Rovers and from NASA down on the ground. Editing them together makes it appear that we are actually watching the Rovers move about but in fact, as we don’t see until the end of the film, Oppy doesn’t shoot a “selfie” of itself until just before it “dies.” Most audiences will hopefully understand what is real and what isn’t here but I found myself wondering how many people will see that computer imagery as part of the reality of the planet.
Nevertheless, all of the scenes within the film ultimately add up to a very satisfying, and sometimes emotional, journey with the Rovers and the people at NASA. They really capture the awe-inspiring work that went into creating this mission that I’ll never totally understand myself. It’s an incredible look at some very talented people doing something only our imagination and Hollywood has been able to do in the past.
Good Night Oppy is available to stream now on Amazon Prime.
FILM: GOOD NIGHT OPPY
DIRECTED BY RYAN WHITE
RATING: 4 STARS OUT OF 4
By Dan Pal
Haven’t we all wondered what it might be like to visit a planet like Mars? Hollywood has offered many such fictitious missions over the years, most notably Ridley Scott’s The Martian. Of course, the only “beings” ever to actually visit the planet are Spirit and Opportunity which were launched into space by NASA in 2003. These two roving machines were only supposed to transmit data back to Earth for 90 days but Spirit lasted eight years and Opportunity, also known as “Oppy,” lasted fifteen years. Just a reminder… this is reality, NOT a Hollywood movie! The new documentary Good Night Oppy, which had five big wins at the recent Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, does a fantastic job of tracing the development, launch, discoveries, issues, and eventual “deaths” of these rovers. Essentially, this is a biopic, but of man-made machines instead of people.
The amount of footage of this mission that is included here is quite astounding. There are scenes from the original planning meetings, the building of the rovers, and the launches. Plenty of video footage was shot in the NASA control room in these early years and all of it is presented at the same level of visual quality as that which was shot in the late 2010s. Clearly, there was a mission to also document this entire experience and director Ryan White does a great job of pulling together all of the steps along way. Of course, there are also interviews with dozens of people that worked on the mission including scientists, Rover drivers (similar to those who “fly” drones today), and students who began their careers as part of this mission. While most of those involved are white, there is increasing diversity within the NASA team, especially in the male to female ratio. But what’s impressive is how many people remained on board for the entire mission.
Any good documentary today is also going to need some dramatic moments to fulfill audience needs for a “real” movie experience. White spares none of this. There are many tense moments when the Rovers encounter solar flares, dust storms, and winter shut downs. At one point the connection to Spirit is lost. At another, Oppy gets stuck in the Mars sand. All of this is very well told with sharp editing and moving cinematography. It also helps that White interviews people with a LOT of personality. Many become characters in and of themselves throughout the film.
Music is also cleverly placed throughout the film. Most fun is hearing the songs those in mission control would use to “wake up” Spirit and Oppy so they could continue their missions each day, such as The B-52s Roam, The Beatles Here Comes the Sun, ABBA’s SOS (during one of the more dramatic moments), and of course, Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. In addition to sparking up the Rovers, the use of these songs in the film keep the energy flowing. There aren’t any slow-downs in the proceedings here.
One issue I have, although to say it’s an issue is a bit of a misnomer, is the use of CGI to tell part of this story. Because we’ve seen so many Mars set films and TV shows, including the recent season of the Apple+ series For All Mankind, we’re used to seeing depictions of the planet that have been partially realized thanks to images received from Spirit and Oppy. But there are major computer enhancements used here to show us the Rovers in motion covering the vast space of the planet. This takes some adjusting to as these images are interacting with real live shots from the Rovers and from NASA down on the ground. Editing them together makes it appear that we are actually watching the Rovers move about but in fact, as we don’t see until the end of the film, Oppy doesn’t shoot a “selfie” of itself until just before it “dies.” Most audiences will hopefully understand what is real and what isn’t here but I found myself wondering how many people will see that computer imagery as part of the reality of the planet.
Nevertheless, all of the scenes within the film ultimately add up to a very satisfying, and sometimes emotional, journey with the Rovers and the people at NASA. They really capture the awe-inspiring work that went into creating this mission that I’ll never totally understand myself. It’s an incredible look at some very talented people doing something only our imagination and Hollywood has been able to do in the past.
Good Night Oppy is available to stream now on Amazon Prime.