This is pre-NASA. This is pre-Sputnik panic (just barely). This is a film made when we assumed space travel would be an extension of artillery science. The aesthetic is Victorian-industrial. Rivets. Steam. Gunpowder.
His solution? Stop shooting at each other and start shooting at the moon. journey 3: from the earth to the moon movie
Let’s be honest. You cannot shoot a capsule full of people out of a cannon and survive. The G-force would turn the crew into jam. The filmmakers knew this. They didn't care. This is pre-NASA
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There is a specific kind of magic found in old sci-fi. Not the sleek, CGI-polished kind we get today, but the gritty, brass-and-bolts kind. The kind where you can practically smell the rocket fuel and cigarette smoke in the control room. The aesthetic is Victorian-industrial
He builds a massive "Columbiad" cannon in Florida. But when a swashbuckling rival, Captain Nicholl (George Sanders), tries to sabotage the project, they make a bet. Instead of a duel, they decide to ride the bullet together, taking a stowaway (a plucky French chemist) along for the ride.
From the Earth to the Moon is a flawed, beautiful fossil. It is the Model T of space movies. It is clunky, dangerous, and probably shouldn't work. But it got us there in our imaginations long before Armstrong left his footprint.