OPERATION AVALANCHE – Review

What if the moon landing was faked? What if it was an elaborate hoax constructed to maintain a sense of nationalist pride and to show that America has the upper hand in the world and beyond? This is a theory that has been around longer than I have been alive. Books and films have tried to unearth clues to support this claim. And even though most have accepted that the 1969 moon landing was indeed real, there’s still the tiniest hint of a voice inside some of us that asks, “What if?”

Matt Johnson reignites this fervor with his newest faux documentary. After the controversial but film festival-favorite THE DIRTIES showcased the actor and director roaming the halls of a real high school with his partner Owen Williams, Matt Johnson decided to use his unique storytelling style to venture to a new, distant place and era. OPERATION AVALANCHE follows a group of CIA paper pushers as they attempt to orchestrate possibly the greatest hoax in human history: stage the 1969 moon landing . The group’s mission quickly goes from impossible to dangerous when some mysterious figures seem determined to put an end to the secret project.

Comprised of fake archival footage filmed to look as if it was made during the 1960s, OPERATION AVALANCHE is a unique film that brings an unbelievable level of authenticity to the preposterous proceedings. Between the sets, costumes, locations, and songs, Johnson has exhausted a lot of effort to make the film look and sound as accurate to the period as possible. However, he has an almost fetishized approach to how he incorporates all the cameras and other forms of dated technology. The drama of the staged film attempts to stand in for the lack of drama within the characters. So much time is spent showing the mechanics and the “how” of this elaborate scheme instead of really looking at the characters and asking “why.”

When they start to create the “moon film,” Johnson has this sort of manic, jovial spirit. He becomes an enthusiastic larger than life character, much like Orson Welles. His manner is a little wearing at times, but it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the situations he is forced to deal with.

Between some fun montages quickly cut to music from the era, Johnson and his crew take viewers through a series of clever set pieces that are meant to raise the stakes of their fake film. Although they don’t always feel as tense as they should, an ingenious sequence where Johnson goes undercover to see Stanley Kubrick in action will put a smile on the face of film fans, and a car chase later on in the film creates some much-needed sparks. Better late than never, I guess.

OPERATION AVALANCHE purposefully blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction in such a fascinating way that you are never quite sure if these characters and their actions could have actually happened; that if there is some sort of truth to the conspiracy. Sometimes the fantasy is more interesting than the truth, and Matt Johnson takes full advantage of this by exploring one of the most fascinating conspiracy theories of all time. However, what makes OPERATION AVALANCHE so compelling isn’t so much the characters or the story, but the “what if” question at the heart of the subject.

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5

OPERATION AVALANCHE is now playing in select theaters and at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis