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First Man is the film to see if you want to get an almost first-person sense of what it was like to fly in one of the world’s first supersonic planes or ride a space shuttle into orbit and beyond. “Apollo 13” is more akin to being in the cab of a runaway truck as it crashes through a guardrail and plummets down the side of a mountain than other films about the United States space program, such as “The Right Stuff” or “Apollo.”
Future first-person-on-the-moon astronaut During the Apollo Program, Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and his fellow team members zip themselves into insulated suits with bags to catch their waste, strap themselves into narrow seats, and wait hours or days for clearance to take off before spending a few minutes being shaken and rolled. The trip’s vibrations rattle their bones, and the noise scorches their eardrums. It’s a nightmare. The occasional brief moment of beauty or peace, as well as a sidelong glance through a window at the blue earth, the grey-white moon, or the blackness of space, are all they get in terms of aesthetic pleasure—and it’s possible that’s all they can take. As a result, they spend the majority of their mental energy studying the instrument panels in front of them and processing the information that is being fed to them through their headsets by mission control, fully aware that a single missed fact or incorrect choice could result in their deaths.
In order to perform this type of work, you must either be the bravest person on the planet or have a death wish. Despite the fact that director Damien Chazelle (“Whiplash,” “La La Land”) and screenwriter Josh Singer (“Spotlight,” “The Post”) suggest that there might not be much of a difference, they’re not the people to explain it, because astronauts are steeped in a tradition that forbids admitting you have feelings, let alone discussing them.
After the death of his two-year-old daughter Karen to cancer, Neil, a handsome but reserved test pilot in the mold of Sam Shepard’s Chuck Yeager from “The Right Stuff,” decides to participate in the Apollo program in part so that he can be distracted from the pain of losing his daughter. Neil’s wife Janet (Claire Foy) is grieving as well, but she is confined to her home during missions, or she roams the halls of NASA in search of information about Neil’s whereabouts and safety. The filmmakers do a good job of reminding us that, as dangerous as Neil’s job is, it provides at least some relief from the emotional pain of living with loss—and that the helplessness the wives felt as they sat in the living room watching coverage of the mission on television or waiting for the phone to ring was uncompensated emotional torture on their part.
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When the film cuts away to other topics, it reminds you that there was more going on in 1960s America than just competing with the Soviet Union for first place in the moon race. During a brief sequence near the middle of the film, it is revealed that many African-Americans (who were active participants in the space program behind the scenes, as “Hidden Figures” demonstrated, but were not permitted to fly in planes or rockets) believed the Apollo missions were an expensive distraction from the fight for racial and economic equality on the ground. Even when they were inspired by the astronauts’ bravery, much of the white political left and some women felt the same way about the astronauts. We can see hints of this dissatisfaction in conversations and television images that make references to Vietnam and social protest, as well as glimpses of astronauts’ wives stewing in the shadows while their husbands take center stage. It is to Chazelle and Singer’s credit that they allowed notes of national unease to creep into the story; this allows “First Man” to feel more authentic to the time period than other films about the United States space program (although, for its totality of vision, the HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon” is superior).
Unfortunately, none of these notes are developed into anything more than side trips or afterthoughts at the end of the story. Eventually it becomes clear that the director’s heart is in the action sequences, such as the climactic moon landing reenactment, and the various scenes in which Neil works to keep his depression and anger under control, as he is a mid-century American man who understands more about science and engineering than he does about his social conditioning. When Chazelle is examining Neil’s inarticulacy, “First Man” becomes a tragedy of American machismo in the vein of “American Sniper,” which wasn’t afraid to admit that its hero kept volunteering for combat duty because he couldn’t deal with being a husband and father, and “The Deer Hunter,” which was not afraid to admit that its hero couldn’t deal with being a husband and father because he couldn’t deal with being a husband and father (in which straight white men expressed love for each other through pain and sacrifice).
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Neil is supported by almost every man involved in the Apollo program, including Kyle Chandler’s Deke Slayton, Ethan Embry’s Pete Conrad, Pablo Schreiber’s Jim Lovell, Jason Clarke’s Ed White, Shea Whigham’s Gus Grissom, Cor Michael Smith’s Roger Chaffee, William Gregory Lee’s Gordon “Gordo” Cooper, and the crewcuts of mission control, among others. They all have the correct Life Magazine corn-fed, square-jawed appearance, and the actors all do their best to seamlessly blend into the period without making a fuss. But, in the end, none of Neil’s coworkers stand out as anything more than glorified background characters. In the film, when Chazelle re-enacts the 1967 Apollo 1 capsule fire that resulted in the deaths of three astronauts, the scene is upsetting not because we’ve gotten to know and care about the crew, but because of the matter-of-fact abruptness of the staging (as if a candle had been unexpectedly snuffed out). In Neil’s mind, their deaths represent primarily a threat to his personal safety and the future happiness of his family.
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Corey Stoll, who plays Neil’s future Apollo 11 capsule-mate Buzz Aldrin, is the only other actor who makes a strong impression in the film aside from Gosling. A wry, talkative fellow who can access his own emotional interior, is aware of his physical attractiveness and charm, and who enjoys playing the role of the cocky space pilot when television cameras are pointed at him, is presented as the protagonist. Despite Neil’s respect for Buzz, he appears to be irritated by how at ease he appears to be in his own skin at times. The notion that emotional constipation equals manly virtue is one that Chazelle and Singer come dangerously close to endorsing whenever they share the screen with one another. If the film hadn’t implied that Neil’s stoic nature and suppressed grief cause him to resent anyone who appears to be happy, “First Man” might have come across as validating the notion that, even after all these decades, the strong, silent type is still the ideal masculine type to strive for. After all, the first man was nothing more than a caveman.
Even if “First Man” fails miserably as a historical psychodrama, it represents a significant step forward in the development of films about the physical experience of flight. I wouldn’t call the test piloting and blastoff-and-orbit scenes artistic in the traditional sense—little there’s poetry in the images—but I don’t believe that’s what they were going for. Putting you inside Neil Armstrong’s body and mind is their goal, and they want to give you a sense of how difficult it must have been to concentrate, work out equations, and flip switches with all of the motion and noise bombarding your senses.
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In order to keep the camera on or with Neil, Chazelle and regular cinematographer Linus Sandgren attempt to keep the camera on, or with, him at all times, whether he’s absorbing facts during a NASA briefing, reading to his son at bedtime, fighting with his wife, or fleeing a burning wreck. The goal, it appears, is to make you feel as if you’ve walked a million miles in Neil Armstrong’s shoes by the time the film is finished. The film is a success solely on the basis of its spectacle value, and it is especially impressive when viewed in IMAX format, which provides astonishing clarity to the images even when Sandgren’s handheld camera is shaking so violently that Southern Californians might wonder if the film is doing its job or if the San Andreas Fault has finally given up the ghost.
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He is an extremely visceral director, more in the mold of a technically accomplished big-screen showman like Robert Zemeckis (“Contact,” “Flight”) than the gritty character-driven filmmakers of the 1970s who he praises in interviews and whom he cites as influences. It felt like you were trapped inside a drum during some of the musical scenes in “Whiplash” because they were so intense. When it comes to large-scale action sequences, “First Man” plays like the most torturous amusement park ride you’ve ever experienced, and it’s so relentless that you’ll wonder how long you’d have been able to last on the real thing before giving up and pressing the “Eject” button. Among the reasons for the three stars at the top of this review are the stunning visuals created by Chazelle and Sandgren, Ryan Gosling’s internalized but rarely mannered performance, the ability of the script to communicate Neil’s buried emotions without dialogue, and the stomach-churning sound design. If you watch it in IMAX, you can earn half a star, but make sure you don’t eat anything before you do. In the event that you see the movie at night, you may find yourself looking up at the moon afterward and realizing that it is beautiful to look at but you would never want to visit it.
For more personality quizzes check this: Breaking In Quiz.
