--First Man
How many of you could recognize a picture of the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong? I could not.
There's a reason NASA chose this man to be saddled with the monumental task of being the "First Man,"
but who really knows anything about him and what he was like. I'm afraid this movie doesn't help with
that. I have not read books about the people who spent a decade edging ever closer to the moon, so my
knowledge of their personal stories is limited, but since this film is based on a book about him, I thought
we'd get a picture of who this guy was.
What we get is his life shown through the experiences he went through, concentrating on the years he
was involved with NASA, but considering some of the personalities we do know about from the 1960's
astronaut program, like the appealing John Glenn or the energetic and talkative Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong
is pretty much the strong silent type. So watching the film it feels like we're being kept at a distance
from who and what his personality is.
I might compare this, oddly, to the Andrews Sisters. I had always wondered why there hadn't been any film
(or documentary) about these hugely popular and influential singers who were the sensation of the Big Band
years. Then I read a book about them and realized why. There was not a lot of drama to be told about their lives.
They really were nice people and their relationship with one another was at the worst, cordial, and so if a film needs
some kind of conflict, there isn't really anything to base a movie on. They had talent, they honed it, the believed in
and enjoyed what they were doing, had a great work ethic and they sang and people loved it. It's kind of the same
with Armstrong. Their problems at the worst were not the stuff of a movie story.
SIDEBAR: For a current observation, imagine if Bradley Cooper's character in A Star is Born was like that. What would that
film be like?
It's much the same with Armstrong. A lot of sadness seems to have pervaded his life with coming from WWII, mentioned
but not shown, and then family loss, followed by the dangers of his profession. In the film, it's all introspective as to how
he reacts to it, so I felt the film was way more somber than I expected it to be. The story of these people who braved the
obstacles is still a good story, but the person at the center of it is more like the eye of a hurricane. That's precisely why he
was NASA's choice to be at the center of the Apollo program.
I admit I was caught off guard with the solemnity of much of the film. I expected it to be, at least in the final stages, a bit
more uplifting and/or, well let's say entertaining. I expect the feeling I got was because I was thinking of movies about this
subject matter like The Right Stuff, Apollo 13 and Hidden Figures that had so many appealing figures in it that you could
relate to or empathize with. Neil Armstrong may have been the perfect choice for this job, but may not have been the perfect
choice to revolve a movie around.
