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Comment by asdfqwertzxcv | Hacker News Reader

Fires of Kuwait - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tUzkF_Dp8M

A first hand account of the firefighters who were sent to cap the oil wells that Saddam set on fire during his attempt to invade the country.

Senna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aPLOQeSHrM The story of famed F1 driver. I'm not a racing fan but this one was amazing.

Apollo 11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Co8Z8BQgWc Completely new footage was found of the complete Apollo 11 mission. The best doc of the space race, by far.

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I would also recommend Moon Machines[0] for an amazing in-depth experience of the Apollo program:

Part 1: The Saturn V Rocket

Part 2: The Command Module

Part 3: The Navigation Computer

Part 4: The Lunar Module

Part 5: The Space Suit

Part 6: The Lunar Rover

Available on vimeo[1] and youtube.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Machines

[1] https://vimeo.com/673970849

For a poetic treatment of the fires of Kuwait, see Lessons of Darkness by Werner Herzog:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104706/

Trailer: https://youtu.be/vMIM-ma2juo

Ive got that one on my watchlist, as well as Baraka once I find somebody with an 8k setup.

Yep, love it, too. But definitely more of an acquired taste.

If you like documentaries about the space race, the Washington Post has a fantastic podcast series called "Moonrise" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/).

I would also recommend Senna. I don't care for F1 or racing at all but I couldn't stop watching because it was so gripping.

+1 on Fires of Kuwait, I saw that in a theater in the `90's and I've never forgotten the shot that starts at 2:28 in the YT video although it is minor in comparison to more recent footage (from Beirut and Ukraine for example).

> A first hand account of the firefighters who were sent to cap the oil wells that Saddam set on fire during his attempt to invade the country.

Just watched the first few minutes and this line strikes me as inaccurate, just based on other things I've read/watched about Saddam's burning of oil wells:

"In a final act of vengeance, Saddam ordered the detonation of almost 700 oil wells"

I could be misinformed, but wasn't Saddam using the burning oil wells to limit visibility from above once it became clear he was doomed as long as the eyes in the sky were unimpeded? AIUI it wasn't some purely vengeful act.

You may be right, but it really has no bearing on this film/story at all. I just rewatched some of it and forgot how amazing the cinematography is!

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