FIRST MAN
US, 2018, 141 minutes, Colour.
Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Pablo Schreiber, Christopher Abbott, Kyle Chandler, Ciaran Hinds, Ethan Embry, Jason Clarke, Corey Stoll, Shea Wiggin, Patrick Fugit, Lucas Haas, Olivia Hamilton.
Directed by Damien Chazelle.
Films about space exploration have been very popular – and award-winning. In the early 1980s, audiences were taken back to the first flights in space, The Right Stuff. In the 1990s, there was disaster and success in Apollo 13. More recently, there was the story of the African-American? women working behind the scenes – and moving in front of the scenes, Hidden Figures. Now comes a quite spectacular film about the journey to the moon.
First Man is about as close as most of us will ever get to space exploration. And, it does not fail its audience in immersing them in the experience. In the first few minutes, we are in the cockpit of a plane with Neil Armstrong, a very serious Ryan Gosling, being battered about as he breaks the sound barrier (with a rather adverse comment about his experience of landing in the desert by pioneer of sound barrier breaking, Chuck Yeager). It is 1961.
The screenplay follows the journey of Neil Armstrong from this 1961 flight to his standing on the moon, that the Eagle has landed, and that he was taking one small step…
The film is doing two things. It is often a portrait of Armstrong himself, as an engineer, as a pilot, as a man who was enthusiastic about the US getting to the moon. We see him interviewed, training, blacking out during an experiment but wanting to go again, respected by the NASA authorities, their sending him to represent them at the White House, choosing him to be the leader of the Apollo journey to the moon.
The other portrait that the film is offering is very personal. There is his marriage to his wife, Janet, a strong-minded Claire Foy was not backward in being forthright about what she thinks and what she expects of her husband and children. There is the sadness, very early in the film, of his young daughter with a tumour and doctors unable to do anything for her. Images of his daughter will recur in various moments during the film, most potently on the surface of the moon itself when he leaves his daughter’s bracelet. Neil Armstrong is friendly in a reserved kind of way, speaking iin low key to press conferences (refusing to be drawn on how excited he was in being chosen for his mission and reiterating that he was “pleased�). There is also sadness in the accidents and deaths of some of the men close to him.
For those of an engineering disposition, for those of complex technical disposition, First Man will be fascinating. For audiences less technical, many of the scenes may well prove overwhelming.
However, it is almost half a century since the moon landing, a singular event in world history that is worth commemorating, for remembering for those who around at the time, some American history worth knowing for those for whom these events are well in the past.
Directed by Damien Chazelle who made an impact with his film about music, Whiplash, and then won an Oscar for directing La La Land. First Man, with its technical know-how, seems rather surprising follow-up to his other films.
1. Acclaim for the film? The work of the director? The cast?
2. The film based on facts, on actual characters? The 1960s, the moon, the moonwalk, 1969? Audience response, to this dramatising of American history? For those who remember the times and events? Armstrong and Alden as heroes?
3. The atmosphere of the 1960s, clothes, music, competitiveness with the Russians in space, the Vietnam war, the growing protests? The protests against the expenditure for the Moon exploration? Yet the revocation of John F. Kennedy and the final playing of his speech about going to the moon?
4. Houston, NASA, the officers, experiments, technology, tests, success and failure, meetings and interviews and analyses, the reaction of the press, Congress? Cape Kennedy in Florida? The launching of the rockets?
5. The homes, family life? Accidents, deaths and grief? Funerals? And the added grief for Neil Armstrong with his daughter’s illness, hopes for treatment, her death and funeral? The effect on him – and the screenplay showing him remembering her at various times, her bracelet in the drawer, and his dropping it on the surface of the moon?
6. The characters, the well-known figures from space exploration in the 1960s, The Right Stuff? Chuck Yeager and the breaking of the sound barrier? These men and their technical advice for the moon launch?
7. Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong? Age, the impact of the opening and his flying the plane, the difficulties, breaking the sound barrier, the return to the desert, Chuck Yeager’s comments? His going for interviews, the NASA board, his explanations, his getting the job? The years of training, his engineering background, his suggestions? The growing friendships, with Elliot, with Ed, Patricia and the family? The friendly supervision by Kyle Chandler? Bob and his seriousness, yet continually supporting Neal?
8. The indication of places and dates, the development of the space program for the moon, training of the men, the experiments, especially with the men blacking out? The later use of this experience, especially on the moon? The Gemini tests? The fire, the deaths of the three men?
9. Janet Armstrong, strong-minded woman, her memories of being attracted to Neil, wanting stability, the children, the death of the daughter, her pregnancy again? Supporting her husband? Strong-minded, forthright in her comments? Love for her husband, yet the fears? Dealing with the children, their being cheeky, supportive? The link in the house with the audio progress of the tests? Their cutting it off, who going to the headquarters and demanding it be put back, her talked that they were playing games? Neil and his behaviour, sometimes sullen, going back to the office, her reactions, his packing and her forcing him to talk with the children, explain that he might not come back? The joy of the success of the mission, her response to the media?
10. The film filling in the personalities of the other astronauts and space experts, Elliot and his friendship, the plane crash? Ed, the discussions, his family, and space control, the death and the fire? The tribute to the sacrifice of those men who died?
11. The children, to joining the group, his bluntness, saying what others were thinking, Neil telling him not to say it? His promotion, training? Going on the moon landing, Neil in command, Aldrin and his support?
12. The readiness to go to the moon? Public opinion? Getting ready, the blast off, travelling to the moon, the arrival?
13. The visuals of the moon and the surface, the descent, testing, control from Huston? Armstrong, the eagle has landed, one small step…? The experience of being on the moon, walking, leaping, the flag, his daughter’s bracelet? The film not dramatising the return but highlighting the achievement?
14. The return, the quarantining, the range of magazines and papers with the news, the television? Janet coming, with Neil, the silent communication in love?
15. The success of the mission, world audiences and the numbers watching television? The universal human achievement? Science and technology? Space?
16. An American achievement? The American spirit? World audiences going back into this history and its effect?
