First Man movie

[Adam the Akrodude]

Anyone else seen this movie yet? I ask as I know there are some NASA buffs here. I've read the book "First Man" some time ago - Neil Armstrong's authorised biography which is excellent. I was a little hesitant prior to seeing this movie as I had concerns Ryan Gosling would pull of this task of playing Armstrong. I think he did a pretty good job. The movie starts with Armstrong's "cross country" episode in the Bull when he set the record for the longest X-15 flight - 12 minutes. I didn't agree with the high vibration or the use of cloud, but I guess this is to show a sense of speed and perhaps portray the intense physical and mental overload that Bull pilot's went through. Toward the end of the burn, there was a 4G longitudinal acceleration - i.e compressing the eyeballs. The very high angle of bank turns and massive rate of decent were well portrayed giving that sense of intense mental gymnastics only a very few people got to experience. Keep in mind here sports fans that the legendary Chuck Yeager could not even handle the NF-104A on a ballistic flight profile despite mentoring and ended up crashing it! Anyway, Neil at one point wondered if he was going to have to put the Bull down at LAX at one moment during his cross country in the Bull!

http://www.whiteeagleaerospace.com/neils-cross-country-flight/

I liked how the tight confines of the X-15, Gemini and Apollo CM & LM were portrayed - perhaps a little too grimy though, too much sludge wash used! Neil's ejection from the LLRV was well done except he wasn't burnt or had his face scraped. He did though bite his tongue badly IRL, but went straight back to his office afterwards to do paperwork! I wish they showed this in the movie, as it really describes the true Neil Armstrong.

I'm no expert on this period, but I am pretty well read on this topic with a number of X-15 and Apollo books plus autobiographies by a few astronauts gracing the "library". There is very little to fault in this movie - very little in my opinion. His Gemini 8 360 deg/sec spin plus the shock of the Apollo 1 fire is also well covered as is the almost heart stopping landing of the Eagle - I could have heard a pin drop in the cinema if this had happened.

"Buzz" also makes a couple of groan worthy verbal comments - perhaps he was known for this. "Chuck" and "Joe" make brief appearances as does "Deke". Look for "Pete" with his legendary gap toothed smile. This is a very human portrayal of Armstrong and covers the loss of his daughter - truly very sad and tragic. Neil's wife Jan is also very well acted - she was one tough woman - had to be.

I highly recommend this movie and I'll be going back with the good lady wife if it's still running next week. I give it 4 out of 5 H2O2 thrusters

[Tony P]

Mate it was as boring as batshit. Boringest movie of all time. There were 10 people asleep when it finished!

[RayS]

I found parts slow, but as you say Adam the cockpit and capsule shots were well done, I agree that the interiors of some looked a tad too grimy for single use vehicles.

The shaky camera in some scenes I thought was unnecessary and as my wife said it a lot of the scenes were shot too darkly even for daylight parts.

I also thought they cut the movie off too abruptly, there could have been a bit more çlosuer'after the return to earth.

[Tony P]

The shaky camera in some scenes I thought was unnecessary and as my wife said it a lot of the scenes were shot too darkly even for daylight parts.

yep and the constant shots over shoulders and dumb use of 16mm film.

I also thought they cut the movie off too abruptly, there could have been a bit more çlosuer'after the return to earth.

No as it was all about Karen! (conjure Ozzie Ozbuorne saying it like Sharon!). Plus they also removed parts like the planting of the flag.

I'll agree the Ge-mini scene was well done as was the lunar landing. X-15 was rubbish and 90% of the rest of the film. This should of been a celebration not something about Karen!

This is from a Director who is 33 years old and directed la la land. Should have known!

[Adam the Akrodude]

Mate it was as boring as batshit. Boringest movie of all time. There were 10 people asleep when it finished!

Agreed it's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you reckon X-15 skipping off the atmosphere and just reaching the dry lake (pretty good representation of this event which was also advised with help of Joe Engle, last surviving X-15 pilot), Gemini 8 near loss, ejection from LLRV, Apollo 1 fire, first landing on the Moon boring, I don't know what to say other than why did you go to the movie? Each to their own and that's all good.

I've read some reviews and one mentioned that this movie has been ruined by the age of "Star Wars". Real life just doesn't compare to intersellar "PEW PEW" movies - oh well. Me, I was woken at some early hour to watch the launch of Apollo 11 at 5 years of age. I could also of become a NASA brat had my father responded to a global letter NASA set out during the mid 60's in desperation for more engineers for Apollo, so I just have a very deep interest in this topic and full well able to see and understand it's not a popular one these days. I do believe it's a very important topic and Armstrong a incredible person - the best "First Man". He basically saw himself as nothing more than one part of the program to achieve a certain goal. He's even referred to himself as nothing more than the technician that installed the laser reflector on the Moon for scientific purposes.

Not sure if you'e read his biography "First Man", but it's a good read if you're interested in this topic.

[Adam the Akrodude]

The shaky camera in some scenes I thought was unnecessary and as my wife said it a lot of the scenes were shot too darkly even for daylight parts.

yep and the constant shots over shoulders and dumb use of 16mm film.

I also thought they cut the movie off too abruptly, there could have been a bit more çlosuer'after the return to earth.

No as it was all about Karen! (conjure Ozzie Ozbuorne saying it like Sharon!). Plus they also removed parts like the planting of the flag.

I'll agree the Ge-mini scene was well done as was the lunar landing. X-15 was rubbish and 90% of the rest of the film. This should of been a celebration not something about Karen!

This is from a Director who is 33 years old and directed la la land. Should have known!

Disagree that the X-15 scene was rubbish. Yes they included cloud which was bollocks of course, but a lot was right. Armstrong did skip off the atmosphere and has the record for longest X-15 flight. He did have to do some extreme yanking and banking to assist the hose coming down and he only just made it to the recovery dry lake coming in pretty low over the hills and landing right on the edge of the lake bed. I do wish they had shown the launch from the B-52 with NO CLOUD and a lot less vibration. It was though apparently a turbulent day - perhaps the worse of any X-15 flight, but turbulence down low is different from vibration. They did capture the extreme dynamic nature of a X-15 flight in terms of altitude and time of flight - pretty high and pretty rapid. There has to be some "artistic licence" as the great unwashed have NFI of what the X-15 was and how and where it flew. Yes too much cloud, yes too much vibration, but to me it did capture the dynamic nature of a X-15 flight - and I've some great reference material with all the available X-15 flights on a DVD set.

The film wasn't just about Karen either at all, whom I might add I reckon the actress captured very well - one tough woman.

[Tony P]

The film wasn't just about Karen either at all, whom I might add I reckon the actress captured very well - one tough woman.

Karen wasn't the wife.

Anyhow regardless they missed the plot. Crapiest movie of all time. Last Jedi was better and that's saying something.

[Adam the Akrodude]

The film wasn't just about Karen either at all, whom I might add I reckon the actress captured very well - one tough woman.

Karen wasn't the wife.

Anyhow regardless they missed the plot. Crapiest movie of all time. Last Jedi was better and that's saying something.

Totally disagree with them missing the plot. Neil's sons were advisors as was Al Worden and Joe Engle. Got the thumbs up from people who were there.

Janet I meant as his first wife - brain fart on my behalf. Did you read his biography? IMHO, you can't compare a movie based on real life to complete fantasy. Totally OK that you didn't like it.

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-070918a-first-man-armstrong-sons-accuracy.html

[Ansett A330]

Sounds like it's only a matter of time before the inevitable Hitler Meme (or whatever the Kids these days call it) of him ranting how bad the Movie was appears on YouTube.

Probably someone with waaaayy too much time on their hands has already done it. (And I'm not wasting my time checking by the way!)

[hrtpaul]

Anyhow regardless they missed the plot. Crapiest movie of all time. Last Jedi was better and that's saying something.

now you've done it