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The movie First Man opens in theaters in the US on Friday, October 12. A local theater had two showings Thursday so I was able to get an advance look. Wikipedia summarizes the movie quite succinctly:
First Man is a 2018 American biographical drama film directed by Damien Chazelle and written by Josh Singer, based on the book First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen. The film stars Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong, alongside Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Ciarán Hinds, Christopher Abbott, Patrick Fugit, and Lukas Haas, and follows the years leading up to the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. Steven Spielberg serves as an executive producer.
I've always seemed to have had a fascination with space. Maybe it was due to my good fortune in having grown up in the suburbs and having gone on many camping trips where the moon and stars were visible in all their glory. I'm old enough to have followed the "space race" from the late days of the Gemini program through Apollo and onward. With that as a backdrop, I found myself quite surprised at what unfolded in the movie. Various mishaps and catastrophes were tastefully addressed, most notably the fire on the launch pad which consumed Apollo 1. Nothing about the details of the missions trouble me. It was how the film thoughtfully portrayed the human side of things that got to me. The toll it took on the astronauts themselves and on their families. Ongoing battles for funding with Congress and the general public. The come-from-behind challenge as the USSR kept besting the US with one after another 'firsts' in space. Yet, through it all, Gosling's portrayal of Neil Armstrong was riveting in how driven and focused the first man to walk on the moon truly was. That said, he was human after all, and the movie graphically portrays moments of intense feeling which are made all the more dramatic for their infrequency of occurrence. It brought tears to my eyes more than once.
I had a few nits with some of the filming and sound work, but those were minor blemishes on this strong production. I know it has already forced me to revisit long-cherished memories from that era with a new insight and perspective. It changed me. Strongly recommended... I give it 8 out of 10.
NOTE: I have tried to avoid spoilers in this review. Please feel free to discuss the movie in the comments, but I suggest using <spoiler>to hide things you don't want immediately visible</spoiler> like this:
to hide things you don't want immediately visible
for those who may not have yet seen the movie.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday October 12 2018, @03:03PM (1 child)
Depends on how you slice it and remember it. The program was absolutely born out of a nationalistic competition between the U.S. and the Soviets, with the U.S. desperately playing catch-up ball. It definitely had an undertone of improvement of capabilities not just for science (the selling idea) but also the military (we can project force and atomics anywhere). Once we won the race we clearly weren't interested in continuing to run (at least in terms of lunar exploration / science out of manned Moon or beyond). EVERY single unit of gear from the Saturn V to the lunar rovers to their space suits were boldly emblazoned with the American flag, "UNITED STATES", or both. And back then there were few, if any, dissenting voices to exalting the nation that did this thing. The world certainly celebrated, but it was also very much held as an American achievement.
The interesting part is that the Apollo 11 flag planted blew over and most everyone agrees [gizmodo.com] that the flags are now colorless.
Is it a big deal? It's good that it doesn't seem to be in retrospect, especially in the current MAGA culture. But is it important to remember the history of nationalism? Yep. Lest we repeat it.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @03:40PM
The US was only desperately playing catch-up ball in the court of public relations. On a technical level, the US was on par or ahead of the Soviets in most aspects of the space program.