Movie Review: The Dish (2000)

The Dish (2000) co-written and directed by Rob Sitch

On July 20, 1969, the whole world watched as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon.  It took a huge team of scientists and technicians to get them there. Another huge team got the video signal from the Moon's surface into everyone's homes. This movie is the story of the satellite dish that received that signal. The dish is (yes, it's still running) in Parkes, Australia, a small sheep-farming town. A local crew of three men have been running the dish but recently a fourth has been added to the crew, an American from NASA. The small tension between the men gets a little bigger as the Australian prime minister and the U.S. Ambassador come to visit Parkes during the Apollo XI mission. The mayor is excited and the town celebrates its role in the greatest scientific accomplishment of the twentieth century. They celebrate a bit too much, causing a power outage that puts the dish off-line. Can the team work together to get the lunar signal back in time for the historic event?

The movie doesn't focus so much on the scientific problems as on the quirky characters involved around those problems. Their solutions don't involve so much scientific deduction and mathematical calculation (though those are indeed part) as they do trust and teamwork. The men learn to respect each other and contribute their best. The townsfolk at first seem to be in the movie only to provide comic locals, but they do show how everyone from all walks of life were drawn in by the lunar landing. They are a microcosm of the whole planet's expectations and reactions to the mission. The movie has a lot of humor and heart and clearly depicts the optimism and excitement of the time.

Highly recommended.

This movie is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast 207--check out their discussion!