Thursday evening I felt the need to get out of the house and so took myself off to the cinema.
" First Man" is the much lauded first-man-on-the-moon drama about the build up to Neil Armstrong's famous journey which took place half a century ago now.
As you might expect, it's a well crafted and meticulously detailed recreation of that brown and beige time in World history but it has a twist, for the film speaks more about the buttoned up, tight arse nature of male grief and coping than it does just about a spectacular space story .
Director Damien Chazelle portrayal of Armstrong is an unflinching glimpse of a rather difficult man. Plagued by the death of his young daughter , Armstrong ( as played by Ryan Gosling) shuts himself away emotionally from the grief, never talking about his loss even to his emotionally more robust wife Janet ( Claire Foy) and it is this distance and apparent emotional coldness that is compounded in the final third of the the movie when two astronaut colleagues ( Jason Clarke and Patric Fugit) are killed in two separate accidents
Armstrong is undeniably a character of great force and resolve but his behaviour as seen through the more touchy feeling audience of 2018 could be seen as rather maddening. So much so it's with a huge gasp of relief to all when Janet finally snaps at her husband's inability to face the reality of their situation and his own feelings and forces him to prepare his children for his potential death in the race to be first on the moon.
The acting is top notch, the production values are amazing and the set pieces in space are all suitably tense.
But I guess, for me, I wasn't quite that compelled by Armstrong as a character .
Apparently strong silent types get on my tits!
You want to shake him and make him respond!! x
ReplyDeletePerhaps that's why you called the car Bluebell.
ReplyDeleteLOL!
DeleteSome people deal with things internally, keeping deeply felt emotions bottled up inside. I thought that all of that was a bit of a sideshow - distracting viewers from the main story. And he did not throw Karen's bracelet into a lunar crater.
ReplyDeleteAnd he and Janet divorced
DeleteShould have gone to see Johnny English Strikes Again.
ReplyDeleteI'd preferred to have gouged my eyeballs out with a spoon
DeleteWe've seen Johny English, Venom and Smallfoot this week, we needed a week of laughs. I might go and see First Man next.
ReplyDeleteI hope William is feeling okay after his jabs. Xx
There was an interesting docu-series on Beeb 4 about the space race, can't remember what it was called but it focused on the wives of the astronauts. They had a lot to deal with when they chose to marry macho,egotistical,larger-than-life characters. Still couldn't help admiring the bravery and adventurous spirit of the men who followed the stars to outer space.
ReplyDeleteI think Buzz Aldrin's book should be made into a film as well. He had terrible problems accepting that he was the second man on the moon. His personal life was a roller coaster of infidelities and alcohol addiction.
ReplyDeleteI had a knot in my stomach watching this film, it was that stressful. I wonder what his wife thought of her portayal, she didnt come off too well either. I did find it amazing that those men persevered though. As they seemed to be sent into space in the equivalent of an old morris minor....
ReplyDeleteThe Apollo program was in it's last days when I went to high school in Florida, across the river from the space center. It was an interesting time, lots of interesting and seemingly ordinary people, did extraordinary things.
ReplyDeleteMy enthusiasm for seeing this has been tepid at best, but I'll just have to get it over and done with - so maybe Mon.
ReplyDeleteThey get mine too, John :)
ReplyDeleteI saw the title of your post on my blogroll and here I thought you were writing a post about me, hahaha!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review, as much of a space fan as I am and grew up idolizing astronauts, I haven't been compelled to see this film. I wonder how accurate it is in the portrayal of Armstrong? I mean like if his family agrees or not.
Side note, I have a photo, the three astronauts Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin in their space suits signed by all three. It's a bit faded (as a child I hung it on my wall in my bedrooms right in the sunshine) but I still treasure it.
I expect I'll see the movie with one of the kids when I'm in Seattle for the Holidays. The moon landing is to me one of those "where were you when...."
ReplyDeleteI was with my parents in a motel in Pennsylvania for the moon landing - the only time we didn't drive straight through from Chicago to Richmond, VA.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite nearly true space-race movie is still The Right Stuff.
So "get on my tits" is a bad thing? I must be doing something wrong! I think I'll wait for the small screen for this one.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll catch this when it hits netflix. It boggles my mind that the only thing Marmalade Mugabe could hang his toupee on was to bitch about the planting of the USA flag not being featured in the film. Thanks for your film review. xo
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the film. I went to see it last week and wrote about it at the time. I went without any preconceived ideas and in fact had virtually no idea what it was about expecting to see space ships and lots of dramatic takeoffs, Dan Dare and technical stuff. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't like that at all, not being that way inclined. I had no idea whether it was accurate or not but, as I said, I liked it.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the film and you may just have persuaded me it is worth watching. As someone who sat glued to the black and white tv, while a college student, watching as the crackly and perhaps misquoted words came through from the moon, I like your description of 21stC feelings looking back at the more buttoned up 60s. I’ve been married to the strong, silent type for 46 years, but as I know and say thousands of words each day, it’s worked out fine so far!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review. We skipped here.
ReplyDeleteSo did it cover the fact he pulled rank to be first?
ReplyDeleteI don't know how true the personal story was as movies can get creative with the screenplay, but I did like the film, especially since I can remember watching those events on the TV many moons ago.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much dramatic license, assumptions, were made about Neil Armstrong, what he thought, his feeling experiences?
ReplyDeleteI just watched it last night. That scene with him on the moon at the crater though! That was pretty touching, dropping that little bracelet.
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