TIFF '18 Film Review - First Man

There are so many areas to emphasize in the Apollo 11 Mission that one could choose. There is the promise made by President John F. Kennedy that America was going to put a man on the moon. The cold war race between the Russians and Americans to be first at each step in space. The waving of the flag to signal how America is great or even the critics of the Space program who saw it as a waste of money and a distraction away from what was going on in Vietnam. With all of these options before him, director Damien Chazelle decided to put the relationship between a father and his daughter at the centre of his film.

Starting in 1961 with the stoic Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) flying a test rocket exiting and re- entering the earth's atmosphere on a bumpy ride where he is merely holding on for dear life for the first of many times to come in the film. At the time he is dealing with his daughter suffering from a brain tumor that would soon take her life and set his personality and course throughout the rest of the decade. He applies to N.A.S.A. landing on the Gemini project the forerunner to Apollo requiring a move to Houston,Texas. The narrative does a good job here establishing that these pilots are engineers and scientists as opposed to cowboys and thrill seekers. They have to know the math and calculations in order to deal with what they may face when up in space. The personal relationships are also fleshed out. Armstrong relationship with Astronaut Ed White (Jason Clark), Elliot See (Patrick Fugit) and his wife Janet (Claire Foy) strong friendship with Ed's wife Pam (Olivia Hamilton) Corey Stoll sticks out as Buzz Aldrin. He is a cynic and critic, always in a bad mood making it ironic that he ends up being the second man down the ladder of the Eagle to step onto the moon's surface.

Chazelle does not shy away from the opposition to the Space program. The most powerful counterpoint is the inclusion of Gil Scott-Heron poem Whitey On The Moon. Poor people starving with rats in their homes who can't pay doctors bills or rent or electricity while the government is squandering millions on the space program. The fatal Cape Canaveral test that takes the life of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee did not help support for the program either. The starkness returns when Armstrong forced by his wife Janet talks to his two sons on the night before the launch  to let them know that he may not be coming back.

The last third of the film is where the spectacle of space arrives. Armstrong is successful in completing a space docking in Gemini 8, then later gets the word that he will be commanding Apollo 11  the one that will take the first shot to land on the moon. The quarantine, blast off, the silence of space and the landing on the moon's surface are all spectacularly done. But with his first act once his boot hits the surface uttering the iconic phrase shows what was at the forefront of Armstrong's mind maybe as far back as the day he entered the space program.

*** Out of 4.

First Man | Damien Chazelle | U.S.A. | 2018 | 141 Minutes

Tags: NASA., Apollo 11, Houston, Gemini, Brain Tumor, Flight Simulator, Mission Control, Lunar Landing, Bracelet.