With the benefit of half a century’s worth of hindsight, the events described in Sputnik Mania might seem almost quaint. But they were no laughing matter at the time. When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made object capable of remaining in and sending back messages from space, in October 1957, it sent shock waves around the world. "The most important story of the century," blared one headline. "On a par with the discoveries of Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus," gushed folks given to hyberbolic pronouncements. "Oh no!" cried the United States. Thanks to the Korean War, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and other factors, this country had been obsessed with Communists for a decade. Now they had beaten us into space, and our image as the world’s preeminent power took a beating, both at home and abroad. What’s more, the American government fueled a raging paranoia that suggested that Sputnik was only the beginning; if the Reds could launch a satellite, surely they could also deliver enough weapons, like Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, to wipe us off the map. Thus both the space race and the arms race began, fueled by terror, competitiveness, and a mountain of propaganda emanating from both sides. Combining interviews, photos, computer animation, and plenty of fascinating file footage (detailing everything from the dogs the Soviets sent up after Sputnik to the "rocket mania" that swept America, with plenty of face time for politicians like President Dwight Eisenhower and Premier Nikita Khrushchev as well), director/co-writer David Hoffman’s documentary tells the tale in riveting fashion. The bonus material is interesting too--and there’s a lot of it, including black & white documentaries detailing the Soviet way of life (at least as we perceived it), anti-American propaganda produced by the enemy, and various other items that seem almost risibly dated and naïve when viewed from a 21st Century perspective. --Sam Graham