First Man

by Robbo

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Posted on 14 April 2021

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Rating -

First Man is a 2018 American biographical drama film directed by Damien Chazelle and written by Josh Singer. Based on the 2005 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, Christopher Abbott, and Ciarán Hinds.

First Man is an intimate portrait of a man many people don’t know very much about.

The name Neil Armstrong was written into World history when he took ‘a giant leap for mankind’ back in 1969.

Armstrong was a reserved man who struggled with his fame which prompted him to leave NASA and take up a teaching position, eventually withdrawing from the public eye.

In First Man the film opens with Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) as a NASA test pilot skipping an X15 off the atmosphere and almost bouncing into space. It was only his skills as a piolt and calmness under pressure that saved his life and allowed him to land the plane safely.

Armstrong applied for Project Gemini and was accepted into NASA Astronaut Group 2 eventually commanding Gemini 8 and then being selected to command Apollo 11 which would make the first attempt at a lunar landing putting him in pole position to be the first man on the moon.

As the Apollo mission gets closer, Armstrong becomes preoccupied and emotionally distant from his family prompting his wife Janet (Claire Foy) to insist he sit down and discuss the risks of the mission with his 2 young sons.

The film explores the personal and professional tragedies that Armstrong endured as well as the pressure astronauts were under with the risk of death ever present.

The film is beautifully shot with Chazelle and cinematographer Linus Sandgren choosing three different film formats; 16mm for scenes inside the spacecraft, 35mm for scenes in the Armstrong household and arround the NASA facility, and IMAX for the Lunar sequences.

The 16mm really makes the inside of the spacecraft seem claustrofobic and intimate with the IMAX making the Lunar surface seem expansive and desolate.

First Man really is one film I would urge everybody to see, whether you have an interest in the subject matter or not.

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