Last night I got to see First Man, the biography of Neil Armstrong, in IMAX. I have been excited about this movie ever since it was announced. I will run to see any movie by director Damien Chazelle. The first moon landing? How can you not see that in IMAX?
This movie continues Chazelle’s theme of protagonists relentlessly in pursuit of their goals, particularly at the cost of their personal relationships. His work fleshing out Andrew Neiman’s drumming obsession and the doomed relationship of LA dreamers Sebastian Wilder & Mia Dolan was excellent practice for portraying the real life Neil Armstrong. I have to admit, I don’t know nearly enough about Armstrong to know if the portrayal was accurate.
Another theme Chazelle continued is his excellent use of music. Music was central to Whiplash and La La Land, two movies about musicians. In First Man, there were two striking musical moments. As they fly to the moon, Armstrong plays a tape that brings us back to an earlier scene with his wife. When Armstrong steps out onto the moon everything becomes haltingly silent.
Again, I don’t know enough about Armstrong to say the portrayal was accurate, but Ryan Gosling’s performance was excellent. His “more fuel” quip harnessed Armstrong’s solemnity for the funniest moment of the movie. The real star of the show was Claire Foy as his wife Janet Shearon. While Neil puts his head down and drives at his goals, Janet brings to life the conflicts around them; the risks he is taking, the never-ending funerals for his colleagues, his refusal to talk about their lost daughter or the chance he may not return.
First Man is the weakest of Chazelle’s three films, but that’s not intended as a strong criticism. The biggest problem was handling nearly a decade of events, jumping multiple years a few times. I have read some other reviews describing the non-Armstrong characters as flat. There might be some truth to that, but I think those reviewers are missing the point. This isn’t a movie about NASA, it’s about Neil.
As I watched First Man I was in genuine awe of NASA’s achievements in putting men on the moon. And yet, I found myself agreeing with the hippies. Was it a wise use of resources? Did we gain much more than bragging rights over the Soviets? I’d like to read up on what we have gained from our research on the moon. But I’m skeptical it was worthwhile, even while recognizing the greatness of the achievement.
The gravity of their achievements was really brought home by how, well, 1960s everything was. You really felt like they were shot up to the moon in a bucket full of bolts. Apollo 1 was a fatal disaster before they even left the surface!
On a personal note, I loved the bits of celestial mechanics. I was never too interested in physics in school, focusing more on social sciences, but I have become more interested in spaceflight because of the video game Kerbal Space Program. Playing that game has taught me a lot about orbital mechanics and lunar theory. I loved the Gemini 8 scene where Armstrong and David Scott docked with another spacecraft for the first time. I’ve done that! On a, uh computer game…