FIRST MAN

Review: Follows the life and career of Neil Armstrong and the events leading up to the 1969 moon landing.
Director: Damien Chazelle
Actors: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Pablo Schreiber, Christopher Abbott, Ethan Embry, Ciaran Hinds, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Shea Whigham, Patrick Fugit, Lukas Haas, Cory Michael Smith, Brady Smith and Olivia Hamilton
Year: 2018
Genre: Biography, Drama and History
Conclusion: 4/5
From a novel called First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by author James R. Hansen. This is a must see just to see Ryan Gosling’s performance . Without him it wouldn’t be half as good. Right the way through this you can see what sort of relationship he has got with Damien Chazelle. I think they work really well together. They first both worked on La La Land (2016) together. This is the first time Damien Chazelle has directed a film for which he has not written the script. It was originally going to be directed by Clint Eastwood. As good a director he is, and I am sure he would have done a good job on the film, I am pleased that Damien Chazelle took over the project. Claire Foy gives an amazing performance as Neil Armstrong’s wife. You could read this film as Neil Armstrong wanting to escape from earth, as we see flashes of him with his daughter who has sadly passed away. He wants to escape from his home surroundings and finds everything too much to cope with. We see his wife wanting to sit down and talk about what has happened, but he is the opposite and doesn’t want to talk. What I did get is just how claustrophobic it was in the space module and what a dangerous mission it actually was. Also the thing that struck me was the amount of work and preparation the real guys had to go into before they all went off into space. The sound score was very well composed. This being about space did remind me of films such as Gravity (2013) and Silent Running (1972). A film that needs to be seen at the cinema to get the full extent of the atmosphere. When Ryan Gosling reaches the moon I found myself doing all the heavy breathing with him! The themes that occur in this is grief, loneliness and also redemption. At the Golden Globe Awards in 2019 this won Best Original Score – Motion Picture (Justin Hurwitz). At the Academy Awards in 2019 this won one Oscar and that was for Visual Effects.