"The Dream Is Alive" is an American 37-minute documentary from 1985, so this one is already over three decades old. Director Ferguson and writer Myers have worked on several other (space) documentaries as well, but because of the IMAX reference here, this one is possibly their most known work. Or at least among their most known. In the tradition of known actors doing the narration for IMAX, a tradition that went on until today, we hear Golden Globe winner Walter Cronkite in this one and I must say he did a pretty decent job in terms of his voice acting for the most part. It also helped underline the fact that space and its exploration were a much bigger and more significant subject back then than they are today probably. The fact that I did not really enjoy the watch has mostly to do with personal bias. Speaking about the first woman in space is a bit on the sexist side in my opinion as it should be all about equality. Why don#t we say the xth person in space, only because it does not sound so impressive? Anyway, the concept of space exploration is also one that baffles me as we are (even today) at a point where we still have not even come close to exploring Planet Earth. Maybe there are some regions that just shouldn't be touched, here on Earth and up there on space. So yeah, everybody who likes space aviation and also some technical aspects about it can check this one out and they probably won't regret the watch. An American passport and a touch of patriotism won't hurt either.

I just watched this short documentary and was really amazed by the quality of the images since this documentary was made in 1985. But now I see it was an IMAX movie so it does make more sense now. I saw it on my big screen television but I can imagine that in an IMAX theater it must be awesome because the footage and the images are just stunning at times. It's all well done and very interesting to watch and to learn. The narrating voice of Walter Cronkite wasn't annoying at all, it was simple but effective. For the impressive images alone the documentary is already worth the detour. Add on top of that that it's all very interesting especially if you're interested in space and technology. The only minus point was that it was too short. It could have gone on for a couple more hours if it was up to me.

Released a year before the Challenger disaster changed NASA forever, The Dream is Alive tells the story about the space shuttle program, which started in 1981 with the launch of Columbia, and ends with the launch of Challenger. The cinematography and audio were ahead of its time.