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I wasn’t around to share in the excitement when Neil Armstrong made his monumental giant leap for mankind. But after watching The Dish, I feel as though I had a ringside seat.
The Dish takes place in Parkes –- a small town in Australia. In July of 1969, that small town became the center of attention because of the important part it played in the Apollo 11 mission. There, in the middle of a sheep pasture, stands the Southern Hemisphere’s largest satellite dish –- a dish that would receive the TV signals from the moon.
The story revolves around the city of Parkes and the men –- three locals led by Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill) and Al Burnett (Patrick Warburton), a NASA official –- who were responsible for receiving the unforgettable transmission from the moon. Though acts of God and man threatened to make their mission a failure, the four men learned that sometimes you just have to take a risk.
Based, of course, on a true story, The Dish is powerful and dramatic –- yet light and funny, too. The film, peppered with actual footage from 1969, shows what a significant part the Apollo 11 mission played in the lives of the people in small-town Australia –- and around the world. And though I realize that it’s not entirely factual (the dish, it turns out, wasn’t exactly as critical as the movie suggests), I was on the edge of my seat as I watched -– as though I were actually watching history unfold.
If you weren’t around to watch the actual moon landing, The Dish will make it come to life. And if you were there, in front of the TV with millions of others around the world, The Dish will help you relive the memory.
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