Just watched "The Dish" (2000)

[ForrestGump]

It's excellent. If you haven't seen it, watch it!

It's an Australian film about the Apollo 11 moon landing and the Australian radio-telescope station in Parkes that was selected to beam the TV signals from the moon to Earth. Apparently, things went awry and that famous moment in TV history almost didn't happen. I visited the dish at Parkes when I was ten years old and really loved all the stuff (and the talking chairs...sat down in them and speakers at ear level told you the story of the facility) at the visitors' center, but I sure don't remember hearing anything like "and we almost had a blimmin' cock-up of Dunkirk proportions with Apollo 11..." :D

The film's great. It's even better if you have familiarity with small-town Down Under, especially as it was in the late '60s and '70s. Takes me back, for sure. But even if you've never been in the Antipodes, then or now, it's liable to be a shot of nostalgia (a very well-executed, human, real, down-to-Earth, funny, entertaining one) and if you're younger than me you're still likely to enjoy the hell out of this film and its quirky (but very true-to-life) characters. It's a feel-good movie, and that's fine with me.

I loved the soundtrack, too....very evocative of my extreme youth. Those songs and instrumentals ("Good Morning Starshine" and a lot more) remind me of a time when all was cool...I was five then, which I guess had something to do with that.

I cracked up when the kids in a local band chosen to play the US national anthem started into the theme from Hawaii Five-O. :D not a spoiler...it's in the trailer

"Awww, who's playing funnybuggers?"

:D

"Are we stuffed" "Yeah, we're stuffed."

[billyskank]

1. That film is fucking cool

It's amazing how quickly an hour and a half goes past, considering that the most exciting thing that happens in the whole film is, it gets a bit windy!

:rofl:

That film is seriously charming and pretty funny.

[ForrestGump]

3. Yeah, it does fly by

I might pop it in again...I've forgotten how to sleep, anyway :D

[billyskank]

4. I'm having a lot of trouble with sleep myself

I'm not actually feeling sleepy, having got about as much as I can, but I still feel really wierd. My brain thinks really it is the middle of the night, and I have this wierd half-drugged feeling going on. :D

[ForrestGump]

6. It must be contagious!

Though my symptoms mostly have me getting a few hours each afternoon -- got a big list of errands to run, but even in Las Vegas there're only so many you can do at four in the morning.

Movie time!

[billyskank]

2. Random quote:

"You can't bullshit NASA!"

[ForrestGump]

5. Almost random:

Al Burnett: The Ambassador's coming. Space nut. Knows everything about Apollo 11.
Ross Mitchell: Does he know where it is?


and

Mayor Bob McIntyre: Do you remember what they said when I first proposed this thing?
Len Purvis: That you were grandstanding, that it was a self-serving stunt to big note yourself.
Mayor Bob McIntyre: Who said that?



Still cracking up over the Hawaii Five-O bit... :rofl:

[Blue_Tires]

18. "In the party we have a saying.....

DON'T fuck up!"

[ForrestGump]

7. Just found this

nitpicking page.

Whatever the truth -- few movies ever made are true to events they claim to document -- it's a very entertaining film.

[ForrestGump]

9. Forgot the link

Here's what I meant to post:

http://www.pcug.org.au/~mdinn/TheDish/

[sarge43]

8. I loved the opening scene

Buxton returns to the site thirty years later, the silent exchange between the Dish and him.

"Hello old friend."

"Hello Doctor. Good to see you again."

"Still hard at work, I see."

"Oh yes. Discovered another quasar, you know."

"(sigh)"

[ForrestGump]

12. Yep

A few changes in those 30 years, to say the least.

I think the moonwalk of that July was the first really big media event that I remember from when I was a kid...still remember sitting in our house and us all watching it. The next major international news stories that really stand out in my memory, from TV news broadcasts, were Nixon resigning and the helicopters being ditched off carriers in the South China Sea eight months later. Things weren't simpler then -- okay, maybe they were, but there was sure enough intrigue and war going on at the time -- but it was a lot simpler being a kid than has proven true of anything that's followed...

[sarge43]

17. No, things have never been simple - same song, different verse.

I remember quite well when Sputnik was launched and how it threw us all into a panic. Sadly, no one seemed to realize that it was humanity's toe into the Cosmic Ocean.

Yeah, get the DVD. It's definitely one of those movies to be watched over and over, especially when events are particularly bleak.

[Skittles]

10. oh I loved it

I had to travel quite a ways to see it at the theater when it came out and I live in a metroplex

[ForrestGump]

13. Glad it was worth the trip!

I might have to buy this one, I think. :-)

You can come over and watch it.

[MissHoneychurch]

11. I was cracking up when I watched it

it is just hilarious

:rofl:

[ForrestGump]

15. And it even transcends hemispheres!

I'm with you...and I did start watching it again, but sun's up now and I'm determined to get to sleep a few hours earlier than I have been.

:hi:

[Patiod]

14. Adorable

A slicker effort than the director's previous work, "The Castle", which I also highly recommend. He based "The Castle" on his dad, who was optimistic to the point of ridiculousness, and it's a sweet, odd little indie-type film.

[YankeyMCC]

16. I stumbled across this on a cable channel

(I don't recall which) last year and really enjoyed it.