User Reviews

And if you are a techie or ever did contract work for the government or were in the Air Force, you missed everything.

Otherwise you didn't miss much. Production values are as low as can be but the interviews, which are 90% of the documentary, are gold.

It is mainly tied to the CDMA Standard and precise timing provided by the atomic clocks on the satellites. Also, you can navigate on less than 4 satellites but with degraded performance. Ideally you want four satellites in the nav solution with one high above and the other three lower to the horizon and equally spread apart. Geometric dilation of precision (GDOP) was a problem in the early development days when we had a limited constellation.

Found this on Amazon Prime,but I am confused by two points. 1 - show states 4 satellites are used to calculate location, but everthing I have read about GPS says 3 satellites are used. 2 Amazon tag line says 'without GPS there would be no internet' this is never explained in the show. How does GPS factor into the origin of the internet?

The narration and writing were unbearable. I checked out immediately. Let me know if I missed anything.

This documentary is so worth seeing for all the right reasons. Very seldom do a group of brilliant individuals come together and cooperate on a project this huge and complex. Everything, including the math, had to be invented new or re-invented. Some projects are a race, this was a race of unending hurdles. The problems they over came were nothing if not mind boggling. The film throws up some charts and equations not because they'll interest you but to show you just what they had to work through. Get to one point and "oh, looks like we'll have to account for Einstein's theory on relativity". What? But they all believed in what they had, what they were doing. It may come as a surprise but these were all military Air Force officers and government contractors. Unsung heroes of a technology so ubiqitous now that we ignore it. But in 1983 when KAL 007 was shot down by a Russian fighter with the loss of all on board it was apparent to President Reagan how important the technology was, how it could save lives, and thus he determined it needed to be free to everyone. Free to everyone, to the world. This is not the most exciting documentary I've seen but moment for moment it makes you feel good because the GPS team are an exceptional group of incredibly smart, decent, people. If you like science and technology there's plenty in the right doses with no yawn factor. Some will argue GPS was not born in 1973 and there's an argument for that which the film does not hide. I see it this way, it was the day GPS left the womb and began its journey to becoming a fully formed technology.

Amateurish at best.

Miserable writing if any. Horribly and obviously read to-camera exposé and narration. Stockish and unnecessary music. Graphics feel like 90's Power Point word art mixed with wikipedia.

Calling the cinematography deeply flawed would be unfair to home movies. Brad Parkinson is out of focus for goodness sake! Not to mention that the highlights are almost blown out on half his face.

Brakes all the rules of basic lighting for interview, no backlight, no fill just a hard key with half the face in shadow so deep the blacks are crushed. Total lack of consequent lighting and framing, the takes just don't intercut. In one case interview shot with a wide lens - clearly visible distortion - you just don't do that to people!

Flawed audio.

No visual style. The creators ambitions overtake their ability.

Unless you really are in to GPS or satellites in general - unbearable to watch.

Compare to the interviews in the "In the shadow of the moon" or "Moon machines". All you need is three lights, a basic backdrop (black or whatever), some clamps and a roll of black wrap. Fits in one bag and you can make the exact same interview setup wherever you are.

The one and only redeeming quality is the subject and the people in it. As a professional working in navigation (and a passionate filmmaker) those are my heroes. I have been looking up to them for a long time and dream of getting a chance to work on a project like GPS.

They deserve better than this!