First Man (2018)
Directed by Damien Chazelle
A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
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More so than other films about the US space program, including " The Right Stuff " and " Apollo 13 ," it makes the experience seem more wild and scary than grand, like being in the cab of a runaway truck as it smashes through a guardrail and tumbles down the side of a mountain.
Although inferior in its depiction of the early days of the space program to such riveting productions as The Right Stuff, Apollo 13 , and From the Earth to the Moon (the 10-part 1998 mini-series that one might consider to be definitive), First Man offers an intimate portrayal of Armstrong, offering a peek behind the taciturn mask he wore as an icon and hero.
Adapted from James R Hansen’s book by Spotlight screenwriter Josh Singer, First Man’s 60s-set narrative essentially picks up from Philip Kaufman’s 1983 adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff .
The shot seems to be a deliberate echo of the most iconic still from Philip Kaufman’s 1983 space epic The Right Stuff , in which test pilot Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard), his glass helmet shattered and scorched, calmly walks from the flaming wreckage of a test plane.
The 1950s - 70s heyday of the United States’ manned space program has been a relatively successful (if strangely infrequent) source of compelling cinematic stories, inspiring both rousing dramas (The Right Stuff [1983], Apollo 13 [1995]) and engrossing documentaries (For All Mankind [1989], In the Shadow of the Moon [2007]).
The moon landing itself, and the other space sequences, don't really look like space movies of the past—you can see Chazelle going to great lengths not to actively lift shots from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Gravity or The Right Stuff.
More so than other films about the US space program, including " The Right Stuff " and " Apollo 13 ," it makes the experience seem more wild and scary than grand, like being in the cab of a runaway truck as it smashes through a guardrail and tumbles down the side of a mountain.
The film distinguishes itself from other space epics, such as Ron Howard’s space-program love letter Apollo 13, with Chazelle’s dogged insistence on filming much of the action from Armstrong’s perspective.
The movie succeeds thanks to director Damien Chazelle’s superb visuals, which land somewhere between the quiet indie look of his previous flick, “La La Land,” and the epic sweep of “Apollo 13.” Space has never looked so sexy, or felt so claustrophobic.
The 1950s - 70s heyday of the United States’ manned space program has been a relatively successful (if strangely infrequent) source of compelling cinematic stories, inspiring both rousing dramas (The Right Stuff [1983], Apollo 13 [1995]) and engrossing documentaries (For All Mankind [1989], In the Shadow of the Moon [2007]).
Una vez arriba, suspendido a la merced de las fuerzas naturales (con “Isaac Newton en el asiento del piloto”, como diría el Jim Lovell de Tom Hanks en Apollo 13), Chazelle nos presenta mejor a su protagonista, un hombre que en cualquier otra cinta pronunciaría en este momento alguna línea “de guion”, como sucede en aquella de Ron Howard.
We knew that Tom Hanks, as astronaut Jim Lovell, would survive a catastrophic mishap and make it home alive in Apollo 13—just as we knew that Hanks would safely ditch his plane in the Hudson River as an airline pilot in Sully.
Despite obvious nods to Kaufman and Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey), what he arrives at is plodding and dramatically opaque.
The moon landing itself, and the other space sequences, don't really look like space movies of the past—you can see Chazelle going to great lengths not to actively lift shots from 2001: A Space Odyssey , Gravity or The Right Stuff .
The film is far more Tree of Life than Apollo 13, and there are even shades of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey—dwelling on the existential and philosophical nature of space flight, eyes gazing upward at the galaxies behind the glass domes of space helmets.
He complements the too-big-to-comprehend shots of space with a classy gusto akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey, with sumptuous, smooth symphonies further illustrating the wonder in those moments.
What we have never gotten, that I can think of, is a movie about a real or fictional space mission that's as committed as First Man is to creating an extraordinary subjectivity, a you-are-there-ness that captures all the tension and terror of those three flights through a combination of screaming fast editing by Tom Cross, unnervingly close shots of faces, often just Armstrong's determined, wide eyes (superficially and certainly not by accident recalling 2001: A Space Odyssey ), and Justin Horwitz's terrific score, which hammers out in minimalist rage, just about guaranteeing your heart rate is going to spike from listening to it, whatever else happens.
There are certain sequences where you’re reminded of the VAST expanse and beauty of space (agoraphobes beware) that, at times, feel very 2001: A Space Odyssey -inspired.
The 1950s - 70s heyday of the United States’ manned space program has been a relatively successful (if strangely infrequent) source of compelling cinematic stories, inspiring both rousing dramas (The Right Stuff [1983], Apollo 13 [1995]) and engrossing documentaries (For All Mankind [1989], In the Shadow of the Moon [2007]).
For another, there is the knowledge that the so-called space race that America took part in during the Fifties and Sixties has already spawned a number of exemplary films running the gamut from narrative features like Phillip Kaufman’s genuine epic “The Right Stuff” (1983) and Ron Howard’s exemplary “Apollo 13” (1995) to documentaries like Al Reinart’s “For All Mankind” (1989) and that any new film on the subject would inevitably be compared to them.
2 1/2 Stars (out of 4) Tweet Asking for the Moon By Jeffrey M. Anderson Best Director Oscar-winner Damien Chazelle returns with First Man, an attempt to tell the story of Neil Armstrong's miraculous moon landing in a more close-up style than did Philip Kaufman's masterful The Right Stuff or Al Reinert's essential documentary For All Mankind.
The flight action scenes are as true to life as any film since the wondrous 1989 documentary For All Mankind, which used original NASA footage to tell the story of the Apollo program — including Armstrong’s “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” proclamation on July 21, 1969, which he evidently thought out beforehand.
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We knew that Tom Hanks, as astronaut Jim Lovell, would survive a catastrophic mishap and make it home alive in Apollo 13—just as we knew that Hanks would safely ditch his plane in the Hudson River as an airline pilot in Sully.
I was reminded a bit of Sully, Clint Eastwood's movie from two years ago about pilot Sully Sullenberger and the flight he landed on the Hudson.
Whether aimed at Buddy Rich in “Whiplash” or at the classic-jazz pantheon (and an inspirational aunt) in “La La Land,” his reverence for past heroes is matched only by that of Steven Spielberg—who, notably, is an executive producer of “First Man.” Compare Chazelle’s direction to Clint Eastwood’s in “ Sully ,” which sees through the heroic protagonist’s public image and his sense of responsibility to his tragic consciousness.
When Chazelle is examining Neil's inarticulateness, "First Man" becomes a tragedy of American machismo, in the vein of " American Sniper " (which wasn't shy in admitting that its hero kept volunteering for combat duty because he couldn't deal with being a husband and father) and " The Deer Hunter " (in which straight white men expressed love for each other through pain and sacrifice).
Forget whether or not patriotism should even be a mission of a movie, or a barometer of its success as a film—the word for that, folks, is propaganda— First Man nonetheless may be the most patriotic drama we’ve seen since American Sniper .
Space has been the setting for some of the most rousing films ever made, starting with Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon from 1902 and leading all the way up to Claire Denis’s recently debuted, bodily-fluid-obsessed galactic opera High Life .
This blockbuster drama from director Damien Chazelle (" Whiplash ," " La La Land ") and screenwriter Josh Singer (" Spotlight ," " The Post ") implies that there might not be a lot of difference, and that if there is, the astronauts aren't the people to explain it, because they're steeped in a tradition that forbids admitting you even have feelings, much less discussing them.
Unfortunately, along with his determination to burrow into the lead character’s psyche, Oscar-winning Damien Chazelle (whose statuette came for La La Land ) fully embraces the shaky-cam handheld approach.
Inspired by the James R. Hansen book First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, director Damien Chazelle (La La Land/Whiplash) sheds all pretense as he reteams with Ryan Gosling (La La Land) to explore Neil Armstrong, the man, not the legend, who took the infamous first step on the moon.
The single-minded obsessiveness of Miles Teller’s drummer in Whiplash , struggling to understand the difference between rushing and dragging; Mia and Sebastian’s varying dreams of artistic fulfillment and fame in La La Land , paths that lead them away from each other but toward individual personal success; and now the space race in First Man, the challenge issued by President John F. Kennedy to get us to the moon.
Last and certainly not least this week is "First Man," the latest film from "Whiplash" and "La La Land" director Damien Chazelle, starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong.
Damien Chazelle: ‘I liked doing something that was the polar opposite of La La Land’…
This blockbuster drama from director Damien Chazelle (" Whiplash ," " La La Land ") and screenwriter Josh Singer (" Spotlight ," " The Post ") implies that there might not be a lot of difference, and that if there is, the astronauts aren't the people to explain it, because they're steeped in a tradition that forbids admitting you even have feelings, much less discussing them.
Inspired by the James R. Hansen book First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, director Damien Chazelle (La La Land/Whiplash) sheds all pretense as he reteams with Ryan Gosling (La La Land) to explore Neil Armstrong, the man, not the legend, who took the infamous first step on the moon.
The single-minded obsessiveness of Miles Teller’s drummer in Whiplash , struggling to understand the difference between rushing and dragging; Mia and Sebastian’s varying dreams of artistic fulfillment and fame in La La Land , paths that lead them away from each other but toward individual personal success; and now the space race in First Man, the challenge issued by President John F. Kennedy to get us to the moon.
Last and certainly not least this week is "First Man," the latest film from "Whiplash" and "La La Land" director Damien Chazelle, starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong.
But Whiplash director Chazelle’s sights are set on something more explicitly allegorical, as the insular Neil Armstrong finds himself caught between inner and outer space.
Chazelle himself seems to have fallen from space into this project, given that his previous features — Whiplash and La La Land — are centred on music, as opposed to the music of the spheres.
“First Man” bears the same relation to the space dramas that have come before it that “Saving Private Ryan” did to previous war films.
Each reflects its era’s mood and its filmmaking tendencies in intriguing ways, and the two works carry on a discourse with each other in the same way that, say, Saving Private Ryan and Dunkirk do.
In this, Chazelle pulls a Saving Private Ryan , kicking off with a “you are there” sequence of palpable intensity.
In fact, First Man is to the moon landing as Saving Private Ryan is to World War II.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind , where another half-crazed pilgrim abandons his family to his extraterrestrial calling.
This blockbuster drama from director Damien Chazelle (" Whiplash ," " La La Land ") and screenwriter Josh Singer (" Spotlight ," " The Post ") implies that there might not be a lot of difference, and that if there is, the astronauts aren't the people to explain it, because they're steeped in a tradition that forbids admitting you even have feelings, much less discussing them.
Impressively, rather than a rallying cry toward American ingenuity, First Man’s script, adapted by screenwriter Josh Singer (The Post), is far more reserved.
But First Man director Damien Chazelle (La La Land) and screenwriter Josh Singer (Spotlight, The Post) had other priorities.
Written by Spotlight and The Post screenwriter Josh Singer and based on James R. Hansen's Armstrong biography, First Man follows events familiar to most space program buffs, whether or not they’re old enough to have lived through the events in question.
Working from a superb screenplay by Josh Singer (“The Post,” “Spotlight”), who adapted James Hansen’s bestselling book “First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong,” director Chazelle frequently invokes a hand-held camera, docudrama style, whether the story is focusing on Armstrong’s home life or the camaraderie/competition among the astronauts jockeying for position on a rapid progression of Gemini and Apollo missions.
The script, by Josh Singer (“The Post,” Spotlight”), doesn’t waste time on standard biopic scenes — like, for instance, dramatizing the backroom politics of which astronaut gets chosen for which mission.
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His resemblance to Armstrong isn’t great and his utterances of such famous lines as “The Eagle has landed” and “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” can easily be compared to the real thing via YouTube.
John Sturges’ similarly wonky but comparatively turgid 1969 feature Marooned is an obvious touchstone, and viewers who are not space exploration junkies or NASA history enthusiasts may be a bit lost at times.
The 1950s - 70s heyday of the United States’ manned space program has been a relatively successful (if strangely infrequent) source of compelling cinematic stories, inspiring both rousing dramas (The Right Stuff [1983], Apollo 13 [1995]) and engrossing documentaries (For All Mankind [1989], In the Shadow of the Moon [2007]).
The film's great problem that it turns into its great strength is that, out of the 24 humans who flew in space as part of Apollo, Armstrong was almost certainly the least interesting and absolutely the most publicity-averse (he was, for example, the only living Apollo veteran who declined to be interviewed for the 2007 documentary In the Shadow of the Moon ).