First Man

First Man 2018

• Director: Damien Chazelle
• Based on book by James R. Hansen
• Cast: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Ciarán Hines, Olivia Hamilton, Lukas Haas
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Ryan Gosling – Blade Runner 2049, La La Land, Lars and the Real Girl, Half Nelson, The United States of Leland
• Claire Foy – Breathe, The Lady in the Van, Wolf Hall,
• Ciarán Hines – The Woman in Black, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter, Life During Wartime, Margot at the Wedding, Hallam Foe, Amazing Grace, Calendar Girls, Road to Perdition, Titanic Town, Jane Eyre, Ivanhoe, Cold Lazarus, A Mother’s Son, Mary Reilly, Circle of Friends
• Olivia Hamilton – La La Land
• Lukas Haas – Transcendence, Inception, The Darwin Awards, Mars Attacks, Witness
• Why? Ryan Gosling and space travel
• Seen: 15 December 2019      

       How in the world – or should I say solar system or even Universe – did they ever get to the moon? With rockets like rusty tins, battered door hatches, no computers, stowaways in the form of flies, Swiss army knives, fires, dead astronauts. Jan Armstrong was right when she told the Nasa men, ‘You’re nothing but little boys playing with Tinker Toys,’ or something like that. It makes the original Doctor Who look positively professional and high-tech.

       For those of us old enough to have followed the moon program this is an eye opener. Neil Armstrong (Gosling) was evidently not the smiling hero we saw then and later in photographs, but after the death of his little daughter introverted to the point of autism, leaving almost all family raising to his wife Jan (Foy). Not unusual at the time of course but he was extreme in shutting out people. Even as he set out for the moon, he had to be forced by Jan to say good-bye to their sons and he only managed an impersonal peck on Jan’s cheek as he walked out the door.

       Foy and Hamilton as the waiting-at-home-and-worrying-while-leading-a-normal-life-for-the-kids wives are very good. Gosling is good. The rivalry amongst the astronauts is interesting. The background protests against the Vietnam War and the Space Program for spending billions when money was so desperately needed to fight poverty are also good. I was torn. I loved the Space Program, and I was in the streets protesting.

       Just one thing. Where are all the women whose research and mathematical genius made the Space Program possible?

       The film is very slow, very detailed, very dramatic and ultimately very gripping.

      

4 ½* of 5