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First Man
The ridiculously talented Damian Chazelle proves that his artistry in the director's chair extends beyond musicals with the dazzling 2018 docudrama First Man, the extremely up close and personal look at the people and events that led up to astronaut Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.
The film actually begins eight years before that historic July day where we meet pilot Neil Armstrong, a soft-spoken but passionate pilot who has dreams that reach far beyond flying when he begins astronaut training. Armstrong is observed dealing with the death of a child and five fellow astronauts before he is actually chosen to command the memorable Apollo 11 mission.
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The director of La La Land has taken on a mammoth assignment here and, to some, it might seem like he bit off more than he could chew here. In a pretty seamless marriage of docudrama and character study, Chazelle and screenwriter Josh Singer cover a lot of territory here. If the truth be told, the screenplay could have used a bit of tightening, but I think I understand what Chazelle and Singer were doing here...it would have been easy to just document the Apollo 11 mission, which would have made the film just a rehash of Ron Howard's Apollo 13, but providing an overview of Armstrong's life, what was going on in the country at the time, and the previously glossed over loss of life in pursuit of the space program.
The screenplay is very effective in its initial set-up of the importance of eventually landing on the moon and the revelation that there were millions of US citizens who thought the space program was a big fat waste of money. I was pleasantly surprised that this was addressed as well as the story of the two astronauts who lost their lives during the Gemini missions and the three astronauts who lost their lives on the ground during pre-flight testing during the initial Apollo mission, a startling piece of history that was news to me.
Chazelle and Singer must also be applauded for the attention paid to the character of Neil Armstrong. Whether or not this was the case IRL, Armstrong is portrayed here as a man of great humility, immensely passionate about his work, but was accustomed to internalizing his emotions, something I'm sure that stemmed from the death of his daughter. There's a scene at a press conference where he says he was pleased to be chosen to head Apollo 11 but during the scene where that happens you can hardly tell. The strain on his marriage is not glossed over either...the scene where Janet Armstrong demands that he tell his sons that he may not return is brilliant as is the scene where he actually does so...he answers his boys' questions like another press conference.
Chazelle pulls a rich performance from his [i]La La Land[i] leading man, Ryan Gosling, as Neil Armstrong and Claire Foy is nothing short of brilliant of Janet, a performance that should definitely earn her some award season love. Solid support is also provided from Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin, Jason Clarke as Ed White, and Kyle Chandler as Deke Slayton, the head of the NASA's Astronaut Office. Production values are exemplary, with special nods to cinematography, film editing, and especially sound...the sound in this film is incredible, it literally had my chair shaking as I watched and that early scene of one of Jim's earliest flights actually got me a little queazy in my stomach. A riveting and memorable motion picture experience that could earn Damian Chazelle a second Oscar for Best Director.
The ridiculously talented Damian Chazelle proves that his artistry in the director's chair extends beyond musicals with the dazzling 2018 docudrama First Man, the extremely up close and personal look at the people and events that led up to astronaut Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.
The film actually begins eight years before that historic July day where we meet pilot Neil Armstrong, a soft-spoken but passionate pilot who has dreams that reach far beyond flying when he begins astronaut training. Armstrong is observed dealing with the death of a child and five fellow astronauts before he is actually chosen to command the memorable Apollo 11 mission.
The director of La La Land has taken on a mammoth assignment here and, to some, it might seem like he bit off more than he could chew here. In a pretty seamless marriage of docudrama and character study, Chazelle and screenwriter Josh Singer cover a lot of territory here. If the truth be told, the screenplay could have used a bit of tightening, but I think I understand what Chazelle and Singer were doing here...it would have been easy to just document the Apollo 11 mission, which would have made the film just a rehash of Ron Howard's Apollo 13, but providing an overview of Armstrong's life, what was going on in the country at the time, and the previously glossed over loss of life in pursuit of the space program.
The screenplay is very effective in its initial set-up of the importance of eventually landing on the moon and the revelation that there were millions of US citizens who thought the space program was a big fat waste of money. I was pleasantly surprised that this was addressed as well as the story of the two astronauts who lost their lives during the Gemini missions and the three astronauts who lost their lives on the ground during pre-flight testing during the initial Apollo mission, a startling piece of history that was news to me.
Chazelle and Singer must also be applauded for the attention paid to the character of Neil Armstrong. Whether or not this was the case IRL, Armstrong is portrayed here as a man of great humility, immensely passionate about his work, but was accustomed to internalizing his emotions, something I'm sure that stemmed from the death of his daughter. There's a scene at a press conference where he says he was pleased to be chosen to head Apollo 11 but during the scene where that happens you can hardly tell. The strain on his marriage is not glossed over either...the scene where Janet Armstrong demands that he tell his sons that he may not return is brilliant as is the scene where he actually does so...he answers his boys' questions like another press conference.
Chazelle pulls a rich performance from his [i]La La Land[i] leading man, Ryan Gosling, as Neil Armstrong and Claire Foy is nothing short of brilliant of Janet, a performance that should definitely earn her some award season love. Solid support is also provided from Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin, Jason Clarke as Ed White, and Kyle Chandler as Deke Slayton, the head of the NASA's Astronaut Office. Production values are exemplary, with special nods to cinematography, film editing, and especially sound...the sound in this film is incredible, it literally had my chair shaking as I watched and that early scene of one of Jim's earliest flights actually got me a little queazy in my stomach. A riveting and memorable motion picture experience that could earn Damian Chazelle a second Oscar for Best Director.