First Man: The Movie About Neil Armstrong

In director Damien Chazelle’s First Man, a movie about astronaut Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and his journey to the moon, Chazelle takes the first crack at this story in a while, and he does a fantastic job of recreating the astoundment and excitement of the scientific wonder of landing on the moon. While there have been many stellar space films in the past couple years, this is the first one in recent history that has successfully conveyed a factual story about space, humanizing mankind’s initial journey to the moon. With an amazing soundtrack capturing the heart of the film, spot-on acting and authentic camerawork, this is yet another space film well worth your money.

The beginning of the movie mostly focuses on Armstrong’s personal life, the passing of his first daughter and how it motivates him to keep working towards his goal of making it to the moon. The undercurrent of the death of Armstrong’s daughter runs through the entire movie, as Armstrong’s life continues with a pattern of loss when his colleague passes away. In the next couple years, the movie takes a broader lense, as the government and the American people begin to lose faith in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Armstrong’s ability to meet the late John F. Kennedy’s self proclaimed goal by the next decade. All of America has doubts of spending money on a losing war with the Soviets in a race to build the most advanced tech. Against all odds, Armstrong and the rest of NASA manage to reach the goal of making it to the moon by 1970 and ending the space race.

Gosling beautifully portrays Armstrong’s inner turmoil in the more personal parts of the movie, through the great range of emotion in Gosling’s stellar acting, the sadness, anger and frustration Armstrong held throughout the entire movie. The cinematographer also greatly focused on Gosling’s eyes for emotion and he delivers. Gosling shows a man slowly spiraling out as death continues to take those he cares about away, as he loses control of his home life, desperately tries to cling onto to what little control he has left in his work life. Claire Foy also does a great job portraying Neil Armstrong’s wife, Janet Armstrong, as a woman who is doing her best to provide for her family. Her performance as a woman undergoing turmoil due to her husband’s treacherous job also adds a significant amount of quality, especially during her emotional scenes.

While the emotional climax of the movie pertaining to Armstrong’s daughter may not have been historically accurate, it served as an effective emotional punch in the gut, especially with the fantastic score by Justin Hurwitz accompanying Gosling’s emotional performance. Soft piano that had accompanied the flashbacks of Armstrong and his daughter once again plays as Armstrong looks back to earth, with his daughter in mind. It was also a satisfying conclusion to the conflicting feelings Armstrong had of his passing daughter throughout the entire movie, letting the grief he had of her death stop him from living life to the fullest.

While the camerawork is a bit strange, it does not detract from the film’s quality. Admittedly, the camerawork is rarely steady the whole film and contains several shaky scenes, especially perilous space shuttle scenes or during conflicts between Armstrong and his wife. Often, viewers can barely see what is happening and can only focus on Armstrong’s control panel. This is likely the filmmakers intention was likely to show Armstrong’s point of view while in space, and the unsteadiness helps effectively accomplish his goal.

The sound design in this film was very fitting, in both sound effects and soundtrack. The sound effects gave more impact to the shaky camerawork, with large jolts and audible rumbling, which all emphasized how unstable flying the spacecraft was and how bumpy of a ride space could be. The soundtrack gave the movie depth as well through audio that spanned a wide range of emotions. There were moments when happy, arid music played during Armstrong’s home life scenes, yet this music contrasted with the heavier sounds that accompanied the scenes where Armstrong discusses work, The sound design also complemented the cinematography. When opening the hatch to start walking on the moon, as the camera pans out of the shuttle and to the moon’s surface, all sound immediately muted as the camera exits the shuttle. That effect mirrors the lack of sound on the surface on the moon. Overall, the soundtrack was a welcome addition to the movie that didn’t simply play in the background, but added an extra layer of depth to the film.