First Man (Neil Armstrong Movie)

Trailer came out recently and it looks awesome...

I read the bio not too long ago and I loved it so I'm looking forward to this. I'm not a big Gosling guy but I agree with the casting. I think both Ryan and Neil have been accused of being emotionless robots. And Lukas Haas is an interesting choice for Michael Collins.

Anyway it looks like it's going to be pretty cool. Seems like they're not showing us much of Apollo 11 except for little teaser shots but the stuff from his test pilot years and Gemini 8 looks great.

 

Yeah, I read "Carrying The Fire", I was the one you were discussing it with in the "What Are You Reading" thread a few weeks or so ago when I'd finished it. I've read quite a few books about the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo programs over the years but that was probably my favorite. Collins is freaking hilarious. I recently picked up a copy of John Young's biography "Forever Young" which I plan to get to sometime soon.

I'm pretty jazzed for this movie also, it's about time Apollo 11 made it to the big screen although HBO's From The Earth To The Moon did a pretty good job with most of the missions except 10 and 16 (so John Young/Charlie Duke were barely even characters in that show). As it stands the only Apollo mission to make it to the big screen so far was the only one that didn't actually land. Not complaining though, Apollo 13 was a great book/film but a film about Neil was definitely missed. This is probably going to be one to go see in IMAX.

 

It's not a very active thread (only three replies in almost two months and two of them were yesterday) but I don't know if that means people aren't aware. I assumed it was lack of interest but maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps if there was a will they/won't they romance between Neil and Buzz, some mystery about who Neil's parents were, some pew-pew lasers on the lunar module or a line of action figures it would generate more interest (or Buzz?) around here.

Maybe this will help...

 

It probably would have extended ANH by hours while Red and Gold groups sat around waiting for the astronauts to go through the countdown, holds, liftoff, staging, trans-Death Star insertion burn, LM extraction, checklists, etc.

 

Apparently there's some controversy because they didn't put in a scene depicting the planting of the American flag. Who cares? It was the least interesting thing they did up there and I doubt there's going to be any confusion as to which country was responsible. Trump is refusing to go see it so I think I'll see it twice. He says when you think of Neil Armstong you think of the American flag, which is kind of funny as in the book First Man he seems completely uninterested in the idea of planting a flag. He was all about the engineering, piloting and getting the job done. Congress told them to plant a flag so they did. As was often the case with Neil when it came to non-engineering issues... he literally had no opinion on the subject. Besides, I think the fact that they had so many issues getting the rig together and planting it, and the fact that they ended up just blowing it over with their ascent engine because they planted it too close to the LM, kind of undermines whatever patriotic tear-jerking these crybabies were apparently looking for from this film. It might have made a very funny scene, about how they could build a spaceship and land on the moon but not build a very good flagpole or think to place it further away, but I don't think they would have liked that either.

 

Yeah, "Life" was great

 

So did anybody see it? I was a little disappointed, it wasn't a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination but I didn't think it was a very good NASA movie. I felt like it was more about his personal life than his career, and when the man in question was something of a bore in his personal life and a Gemini/Apollo astronaut (plus, you know, the first man on the moon) in his professional life... I think it would have made a better movie if it had been the other way around. The space stuff felt like it was rushed through, the movie is like 2.5 hours long and I bet only about half an hour of it takes place in space. It also just didn't feel like it was made with the same love of space exploration as Apollo 13 and From The Earth To The Moon.

 

I went and saw Apollo 11 in IMAX a couple of weeks ago (I think it's still in theaters on regular screens), it was amazing and gave me the space fix that First Man didn't supply me with. Plus it was the real deal as opposed to a Hollywood film. That lunar orbit/landing footage was breathtaking on the big screen. Highly recommended.

 

The IMAX run was 1 week only but it's still showing on standard screens if you want to see it. I'd still recommend seeing it in the theater even if it's not IMAX.

I actually saw Apollo 13 in the theater twice, once when it first came out then in the early 2000's it was re-released in IMAX. IMAX screens weren't as numerous back then and my buddy and I had to drive about an hour to Dallas to go see it.

 

How very unoriginal and a pretty silly reason not to watch the movie.