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Sputnik Mania (2008)
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:19
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.3/10
Consensus: Featuring riveting footage, Sputnik Mania is an informative, well-made piece that effectively captures the mood during the height of the Cold War.
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Synopsis: Fifty years ago, at the height of the Cold War, the USSR launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth, bringing America to its knees in awe - then fear. Initially thrilling as a marvel... Fifty years ago, at the height of the Cold War, the USSR launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth, bringing America to its knees in awe - then fear. Initially thrilling as a marvel of science, Sputnik was soon viewed by America a weapon of mass destruction. Narrated by Liev Schreiber with expert use of archival footage, Sputnik Mania explores the fast-moving series of events that brought the world's super-powers to the brink of nuclear war, and the story of two ex-generals whose private agreement prevented WW III. Written and directed by multi-award winning filmmaker David Hoffman. --© Official Site [More]
Director: David Hoffman
Director: David Hoffman
Screenwriter: David Hoffman, Paul Dickson
Producer: Eric Reid, David Hoffman, John Vincent Barrett
Studio: Balcony Releasing
Reviews for Sputnik Mania
The sharply edited film, which includes (happily) just a few talking heads but mostly exciting archival celluloid and campy stock is a love letter to Ike Eisenhower.
Director David Hoffman marshals his information into an absorbing story, adroitly narrated by Liev Schreiber, that captures the fears and the hopes of the dawn of the Space Age.
The enlightening Sputnik Mania looks at the late '50s, a time that was dominated by Cold War hysteria.
[A] smart, wry look at the American enthusiasm for and then paranoia over the first manmade satellite to orbit Earth... [R]ings with a truth that still holds...
Sputnik Mania plays, discreetly, like a negative love story between superpowers. Sure they moved on to other enemies, but they still haven't gotten over each other.
The reigning champion in the archival footage department features great Soviet footage of those days that (hopefully) will never be seen again---the days of the US-Soviet space race.
Hoffman manages to keep the tone light -- even H-bomb paranoia gets a breezy treatment -- though most of his filmmaking choices range from banal to boneheaded.
Clear, comprehensible, polished and articulate, but lacking the gut-punch to raise this portrait of a world-changing event from the level of a museum piece.
Avoids reveling in Cold War kitsch in favor of a serious look one of the most important -- and frightening -- moments in human history.
For those too young to remember, Sputnik Mania documents the fear and anxiety that gripped the United States half a century ago when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite in October 1957.
The archival footage here is great, and the cosmos-conquering craziness will satisfy space-race nuts. But the small budget is obvious, so director David Hoffman couldn't go from the Earth to the moon on every detail.
David Hoffman’s documentary Sputnik Mania is an account of that Soviet satellite’s effect on the American consciousness.
Clips from old television broadcasts make this space documentary entertaining.
reminds us that there was a time in the past when world leaders had morality and values
Sputnik Mania is not riveting; but it is, first and last, informative.
So obsessed with delivering a story about "mania" through overcooked narrative and aesthetic means that one ultimately feels as manipulated as enlightened.
Refreshingly, 'Sputnik Mania' stands back and allows its tale to be told in memorable actuality footage backed with unobtrusive period music.
...when it plays to our sense of selective memory and fills in the blanks on issues long forgotten, Sputnik Mania is masterful.
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