Good Night Oppy is a documentary about the two Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. It exists on the borderline between hard science and fluffy science communication. It’s a flick that my jaded, hard science loving brain was enjoying but also cynically wishing was a little less fluffy. But, by the end, the manipulation blew past my defenses and the heart-string pulling worked its cruel magic on me.
Yeah, this Amazon documentary is emotionally manipulative as it tells the genuinely amazing story of Spirit and Opportunity. How they landed on Mars in 2004 with an estimated 90 day mission plan each. Spirit ran for 6 years… Opportunity lasted 14 years, meaning it finally broke down in 2019. If nothing else about this doc matters, the fact they managed to keep a robot roving with increasingly outdated computers and tech that long is one of the great accomplishments in science.
The doc perhaps over personalizes the robots as evidenced by the title (Oppy being short for Opportunity). At first, I felt that was cheap emotional manipulation. But then we meet a few of the NASA/JPL engineers, scientists, and administrators and it’s clear (at least in this doc) that they were the first to connect emotionally with these ‘bots. So who am I to say the film wasn’t depicting how real people felt? And then I remember the random and occasional news stories and interviews about the robots over the years and, yeah, many of us regular folk cared too.
Probably the flick should have been more clear, in some cases, about the difference between CGI re-enactments and reality. Most people will likely know the majority of what we’re seeing on Mars is CGI but there were a few moments (including the communication graphics between the rovers and Earth) that were a little less clear. But it’s ultimately forgivable for a doc talking to the masses. After all, they also show us the actual camera shots so they aren’t really trying to fool us.
In the end, I was moved by this doc… and I learned from this doc so I guess that makes it a success. My cold, cruel heart was aiming for a 3.5 but I can’t deny that I was moved and made hopeful for the next rover mission so it gets a 4. Damn robots blew right through my defenses!
Score: 86