A Trip to the Moon

A Trip to the Moon is a French silent film created by Georges Méliès in 1902. This film’s story is about a group of men who was able to travel and reach the moon through riding a giant bullet-shaped capsule fired from an equally giant canon. Upon reaching the moon, they discovered it was inhabited by strange looking humanoid creatures. They were captured by this creatures but upon killing the king, they were able to escape back to earth.

Counting the time passed, this film is now over a hundred years old. If I were present during the first screenings of this film during its time, I would be amazed and at the same time skeptical of the idea presented about going to the moon. Like most of us, I would be curious about how the moon’s landscape would look like and if there would indeed be inhabitants on it. But I would be skeptical of the method by which they traveled to the moon. At that time, I believe they would have already known the large amount of force needed to fire a bullet. Comparing it to the force needed to fire a giant version of it, I would immediately think that it would just be destroyed upon firing.

I believe this would be a common thought for people living decades before the first real voyage to the moon was made.  But now that we have the facts from actual moon landings, our view of a voyage to the moon is now different. Nevertheless, the movie was still interesting to watch, as we get to see how people from the past would imagine going to the moon using what technology they have at that time.