First Man
A fittingly epic cinematic tribute to the people responsible for arguably Mankind’s greatest achievement, First Man brings a pseudo-documentary approach to a biopic that looks at the personal and professional life of Neil Armstrong in the decade leading up to the 1969 Moon landing.
Premise: Following a personal tragedy, NASA test pilot Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) applies for the Project Gemini, America’s second manned spaceflight program, and the next step in the Space Race to put a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth.
Review:
The 1995 Oscar winning film Apollo 13 casts a long shadow, and since its release, there’s not really been another space-based biopic to rival it. In this regard, First Man is not only long overdue (there were 25 years between the real-life Apollo 13 mission and the film, compared to a 23 year gap between the releases of Apollo 13 and First Man), it’s also a triumphant tribute to the bravery of the NASA astronauts and engineers, and their families, that accomplished the impossible.
But make no mistake, First Man is about as stylistically and tonally different from Apollo 13 as it could be. Apollo 13 was very much an ensemble film, focusing on both the astronauts and ground crew of a single mission, whereas the focus of First Man is unquestionably Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling), and to a lesser extent, his wife Janet Armstrong (Claire Foy). Equally, whereas Apollo 13 was filmed in a very traditional style by Ron Howard, Damien Chazelle’s approach in First Man is far more stylised.
“…blurring the line between dramatisation and reality…”
The film is shot in muted tones and with an ever-so-slightly grainy effect, which gives the film a feel very similar to documentary footage from the late 60s, blurring the line between dramatisation and reality. But Chazelle’s vision is even more impressive when it comes to the staging of the dramatic flight sequences. Alternating between evocative close-ups of the pilots’ faces where you can see the individual beads of sweat forming, and the pilots’ own perspectives of hurtling through the atmosphere at unimaginable speed, Chazelle really puts the audience in the pilots’ shoes in a way I’ve not seen before.
Rather than relying on CGI wide-shots of spacecraft orbiting the Earth, Chazelle focuses on what the astronauts themselves experienced – whether it’s the cacophony of a launch, the snatched glimpses of their surroundings through the tiny observation windows, or the disorientation of an out-of-control spinning vessel, everything is experienced through the astronauts’ eyes. The experience is far more intimate and visceral than any space biopic I can remember seeing before, and this is carried through to the truly breath-taking recreation of the Apollo 11 mission itself.
“…Gosling shows Armstrong’s vulnerability and pain through the cracks in his emotional armour…”
Visual flair aside, First Man is very much a character study of Neil Armstrong, meaning that almost every scene is carried by Ryan Gosling. He does a great job of portraying a deeply personal man who never spoke publicly about his private life, and in First Man, he even struggles to open up emotionally to his wife, friends or colleagues. Such emotional distance could make the character difficult for the audience to relate to, but Gosling does enough in the moments where Neil is alone to show his vulnerability and pain through the cracks in his emotional armour. Armstrong’s intense drive takes a toll on his family, straining his relationship with his wife (Claire Foy) and his children, but he arguably would never have achieved what he achieved without such unerring focus. Gosling does a great job in the early scenes of establishing the personal pain behind his obsession, which goes a long way to explaining what motivates him despite the high personal costs.
And First Man doesn’t shy away from the human cost of the Space Race, and the numerous brave astronauts that made the ultimate sacrifice to pave the way for the Moon landings. If anything, by underplaying the various tragedies, Chazelle reinforces how commonplace fatalities were, and just how dangerous being a test pilot and astronaut was.
“…a tribute to the sacrifices that made Mankind’s greatest accomplishment possible…”
Although this is Ryan Gosling’s film, the supporting cast list is incredible – Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Shea Whigham, Patrick Fugit and Lukas Haas in particular standing out as fellow astronauts. If there’s one slight criticism, it’s that because the film covers events over an eight year period from Neil Armstrong’s perspective, most of the other characters only flit in and out of the events as they cross Neil’s path – but the other way of looking at it is if a character only has limited screen time in which to make an impression, it’s great casting to have such talented actors in those roles.
This film might not connect with everyone, because like the portrayal of Neil Armstrong himself, the emotions are tightly contained and bottled up. This doesn’t have the easy accessibility of Apollo 13 for example, nor that film’s punch-the-air triumphalism. Even the majesty of the Moon landing itself is seen through the eyes of the two astronauts who were the furthest humans from Earth, the incredible achievement counterbalanced by the sense of unfathomable isolation. But as a tribute to the sacrifices that made Mankind’s greatest accomplishment possible, First Man is an incredible piece of filmmaking, ending with John F. Kennedy’s famous words regarding the mission to the Moon:
“But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
