FIRST MAN (2018) IN REVIEW
Posted October 12th, 2018 at 6:59 pmNo Comments Yet
IN REVIEW
NASA APOLLO PROGRAM GIVEN THE WORKS
BY PETER THOMAS BUSCH
Director Damien Chazelle attempts to remake the story of American astronauts by putting the audience inside the command module.
First Man (2018) runs for 138 minutes, much of which is spent creating the sensation of spaceflight so as to permanently bond viewers with the narrative’s protagonist.
Ryan Gosling plays a deeply scarred Neil Armstrong in the leading role. Claire Foy co-stars as Janet Armstrong, the American housewife to the globally recognized American hero.
Gosling shows audiences how personal tragedy wounded Armstrong to such an extent as to close himself off to all the world but for the task of being the first man to walk on the Moon.
Foy at first is difficult to imagine other than Queen Elizabeth II after her two years and so many episodes later on the Netflix Original Series the Crown, but with a bit of time, and several scenes later, that type casting breaks off.
Foy gradually becomes the ever determined partner to an American hero who is just as intent on keeping her family together as she is in supporting the only man focussed enough to complete the Herculin feet the world has been anticipating for a decade.
FIRST MAN (2018)
The cast is made complete by actors Jason Clarke, Ciaran Hinds and Kyle Chandler, all of whom have had successful careers in supporting roles.
Clarke plays astronaut Ed White who was one of three astronauts who died on the launch pad of Apollo 1. Hinds plays the Director of NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center, Robert Gilruth.
Chandler plays Deke Slayton who was the front line for the astronauts as Chief of Astronaut Operations. Slayton was also a Mercury 7 astronaut.
Chazelle follows up the success of La La Land (2016) with a film about one of the most important moments in world history by proportionately dividing screen time between character development, plot and the technical aspects of the NASA Gemini and Apollo programs.
Chazelle introduces audiences to Armstrong in the Earth’s upper atmosphere during his work as a test pilot, and then brings Armstrong down to Earth to introduce his family.
After such an exciting beginning in outer space, the slowdown in the Armstrong home creates exacerbation for those audience members who went to see a movie about space flight and not a romantic drama. The director has his reason though, with the audience gradually bonding with the personal plight of Armstrong while at the same time waiting for him to put those problems aside so he can become champion.
Chazelle runs the two narratives in parallel with a few moments of flash backs without over complicating the plot line.
The only criticisms of the film would be that, at times, too big of a leap was created from one scene to the next, which might go unnoticed by some people who do not know the technical side of the journey to the Moon.
The narrative is also propelled forward by those screen captions: ‘two years later’, etc, etc, to cover the years 1961-1969 in 138 minutes.
Chazelle also uses original news real footage and audio a bit too sparingly, although no doubt a delicate balance since much of the technical parts of the movie probably could have relied on the news networks’ film archive.
Josh Singer thoughtfully reworks an existing screenplay to show how even heroes have those very same human frailties that get us all into trouble, but which people must inevitable overcome to succeed.
The script is also sensitive to the other-worldly issues of race and poverty by allowing a few scenes to show the protests against government spending on the space program.
Chazelle cleverly utilizes different camera work to initially create the sensations that become embedded in the audience, and then also to change those sensations at different times throughout the narrative to ultimately end with a powerfully emotional closing any audience will have difficulty ignoring.
Close ups are used to show the emotional strain on the actors’ faces, but also to emphasise the tight confines of the space in which the astronauts have to work.
Chazelle also films many of the spacecraft scenes with a shaking, vibrating anti-Steadicam to give the sensation of being inside with the astronauts.
The director draws parallels to family life by filming a number of scenes with a hand held camera, as if someone in the Armstrong household had provided home movies made with an 8 mm camera filmed in real time during the 1960s.
Chazelle also does a type of timeless, non-split screen between a NASA hearing and a news conference.
First Man is an interesting, entertaining film emphasizing the real people behind the historical event.
Chazelle successful rose to the challenge to be original when so many previous filmmakers had already been successful in connecting audiences with the real people behind the monumental tasks achieved by the American space program.