After some time into the movie 'First Man' - the Titan lifts off with the Gemini 8 crew. The entire lift-off visual starts within the capsule of Armstrong and the traditional rosy lift-off is turned around. For a minute there, you travel up at the immense speeds escaping Earth's velocity with the entire capsule knocking off like crazy till the eerie quite of the zero gravity sets in and Armstrong switches off the lights to search for Aegena.
That sequence is what is interesting about the movie. The entire mission to the moon has been documented multiple times in the past - from documentaries to movies. The linear story telling and the adventurous spirit of the missions are there for all to see. 'First Man' takes a very familiar story - with the end known to everyone - and tells it very differently and succeeds.
Neil Armstrong - probably the least adventurous person in the Gemini Astronauts and probably the most methodical of the group - is not a perfect fit for a movie about a landing on the moon. So the movie takes the cues from his personal life and try to make the moon landing about something of a redemption and closure moment of Armstrong.
A stolid and determined man, Neil Armstrong comes out as a cold and calm person who even as a test pilot for X-15 bounces into atmosphere and coolly injects himself back into the atmosphere. If there is any emotion shown by him, probably it was not known outside his family. So the movie heavily focuses on who the man underneath that mask is and connects with the mission he was entrusted with.
The loss of his daughter probably pushed him into that mask more at the start of that eventful decade and the movie shows him being unable to bring to a closure that loss and withdrawing into a shell more and more. The coolness with which he handles the pre-launch press conference is one.
The movie works because it keeps the landing on the moon as a sideshow and chooses to focus on the man himself more. The technical parts of the landing are told over quickly and the emotional drama between Neil and his wife plays out more with some stunning visuals being thrown in.
The Man on the moon program brought forth a bunch of colorful astronauts who are legendary and of course, men who did a lot of crazy stuff in the space. Starting with Chuck Yeager (though he didn't fly) to men like Gus Grissom or John Glenn or Jim Lovell, the men were all desperadoes seeking adventure in doing crazy things and a lot of them paid for it with their life as well. Strangely, you don't hear such stories of heroism about Armstrong - he is the guy who made the whole man on the moon thing look simple. He just went there and said a few words and came back - no big deal.
May be, that is why it is interesting to see him as a grieving father unable to get closure and shrinking into his emotional shell more and more. And though it was not clear on the way the final landing sequence on him is done - with the dropping of the bracelet in moon - whether it happened really or not - but it was poetic. It is impossible for anyone to be standing on the moon and not do that.
If you really want to learn about the whole 'man on the moon' program, you still have to see 'From the Earth to the Moon' series - that is the best there is. But if you would like to see a human drama unfolding around the man who did that first, this is the movie to watch.
That sequence is what is interesting about the movie. The entire mission to the moon has been documented multiple times in the past - from documentaries to movies. The linear story telling and the adventurous spirit of the missions are there for all to see. 'First Man' takes a very familiar story - with the end known to everyone - and tells it very differently and succeeds.
Neil Armstrong - probably the least adventurous person in the Gemini Astronauts and probably the most methodical of the group - is not a perfect fit for a movie about a landing on the moon. So the movie takes the cues from his personal life and try to make the moon landing about something of a redemption and closure moment of Armstrong.
A stolid and determined man, Neil Armstrong comes out as a cold and calm person who even as a test pilot for X-15 bounces into atmosphere and coolly injects himself back into the atmosphere. If there is any emotion shown by him, probably it was not known outside his family. So the movie heavily focuses on who the man underneath that mask is and connects with the mission he was entrusted with.
The loss of his daughter probably pushed him into that mask more at the start of that eventful decade and the movie shows him being unable to bring to a closure that loss and withdrawing into a shell more and more. The coolness with which he handles the pre-launch press conference is one.
The movie works because it keeps the landing on the moon as a sideshow and chooses to focus on the man himself more. The technical parts of the landing are told over quickly and the emotional drama between Neil and his wife plays out more with some stunning visuals being thrown in.
The Man on the moon program brought forth a bunch of colorful astronauts who are legendary and of course, men who did a lot of crazy stuff in the space. Starting with Chuck Yeager (though he didn't fly) to men like Gus Grissom or John Glenn or Jim Lovell, the men were all desperadoes seeking adventure in doing crazy things and a lot of them paid for it with their life as well. Strangely, you don't hear such stories of heroism about Armstrong - he is the guy who made the whole man on the moon thing look simple. He just went there and said a few words and came back - no big deal.
May be, that is why it is interesting to see him as a grieving father unable to get closure and shrinking into his emotional shell more and more. And though it was not clear on the way the final landing sequence on him is done - with the dropping of the bracelet in moon - whether it happened really or not - but it was poetic. It is impossible for anyone to be standing on the moon and not do that.
If you really want to learn about the whole 'man on the moon' program, you still have to see 'From the Earth to the Moon' series - that is the best there is. But if you would like to see a human drama unfolding around the man who did that first, this is the movie to watch.
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