First Man-A Movie Review

A Biopic on the life of the legendary American Astronaut Neil Armstrong from 1961-1969, on his journey to becoming the first human to walk the moon. Exploring the sacrifices and costs on the Nation and Neil himself, during one of the most dangerous missions in the history of space travel.

Director: Damien Chazelle
Writers: Josh Singer (screenplay by), James R. Hansen (based on the book by)
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some thematic content involving peril, and brief strong language; Genres: Biography | Drama | History; Runtime: 141 min

We watched this movie last evening at the AMC in Brandon. I found it OK, Lay hated it. I pretty much expected that.

I lived through this period as a youngster fascinated with space flight and the space program. For a time, I thought I’d like to be a NASA engineer. The math requirements killed that dream pretty quickly. I remember watching not just the launch of Apollo 11, but nearly every launch (sometimes with a TV wheeled into the classroom at school). The Apollo 11 launch was just before our regular vacation trip to White Lake, and once there, bringing a 19 or 20 inch black and white TV outside the cabin, and everyone in that cluster of cabins gathering around to watch that late night event. What excitement.

This was a biopic, based on a book, about that first man to put his foot on another heavenly body, Neil Armstrong. The book starts earlier in Armstrong’s life and gives a better insight into him and his life than where we start, but of course, every movie is constrained to some extent by time, even one that’s about 2 1/2 hours long.

Bryan Gosling as Armstrong and Claire Foy as his first wife, Janet, give really stellar performances (no pun intended…OK, yeah, there was) here, the relationship between the two seems very plausible and there is a lot of very emotionally charged scenes between them throughout. They do a great job of bringing what must have been real tension throughout the film. The rest of the cast also turned in great performances. On this, even Lay agrees. Moreover, First Man is one of those biopics where you know what is about to happen, but can’t help but get caught up in the rising suspense of its great scenes.

Most Americans don’t know much about Neil Armstrong and how he got to where he was, and the film tries to depict some of that devotion to flying and pushing the limits, but it comes up short. Maybe, editing some scenes down to add some more of the beginning story would help, but I have really concluded no single movie can tell the story of what really was a rather epic life. I think this merits a mini-series, even if it does have to be shown on TV. (Speaking of which, we watched on one of their standard theater screens, and it was good, but this one might just merit watching on iMax if it is still available to you in that format.) Portraying such an introvert character, Gosling has a single major moment to shine, in a very important scene which proves to be pivotal in terms of what the movie tries to communicate: the USA went to the moon to win the Cold War, while Armstrong, after being marked by tragedy, went to the moon to find peace.

Much of the film was shot with 2-perf Techniscope film which gives a very organic vintage look. Being used to HD nowadays can make this a distraction, but here it really fits in with the overall aesthetics. However, Chazelle’s choices, from shaky, way-too-close close-ups and long, long silences to banging, shaking, roaring and rattling blackout shots where the viewer can’t understand what’s going on, to lack of exposition (about precisely that — what’s going on), are not only disorienting, but unpleasantly distracting.

Director Chazelle did a good job of maintaining an underlying suspense throughout, but some of the most dramatic events were underplayed. For example, during the lunar descent, when the very dramatic 1202 and 1201 program alarms occurred, I would have built the dramatic tension instead of drowning out all the drama with loud music. These were huge incidents which could have easily lead to an abort. I would have built the drama with the 30 seconds of fuel remaining and showed the relief at Mission Control when the Eagle touched down safely. I would have shown the discussions concerning crew positions in the lunar module, resulting in Commander Armstrong exiting prior to Buzz and thereby becoming the first to put his boots on the lunar surface. I know the movie wasn’t about the moon landing itself so much as the story of Armstrong, but these are examples, and who his cool-handed determination…not so well established leading up to this.

All-in-all, as I said, it was a good movie with some disappointments. I accept it was a movie and not a mini-series, so I understand much was left out, but it does leave me wanting for more, and I hope someday, in the not too distant future, a more complete mini-series about Armstrong will be done. In the meantime, the book is a great read.

The cost of movie was worth it. The theater was not crowded, and it was an older quiet crowd. As noted, I’d be willing to pay to see it in iMax format. Definitely worth a watch in my opinion…what say you?

(1 votes, average: 6.00 out of 10)

Loading...