DVD Review: First Man

First Man
[DVD First]

Oscar winners Damien Chizelle and Ryan Gosling, who worked together on La La Land, reunited to work on this marvelous film about Neil Armstrong as he was selected to be part of the Apollo program, assigned to be the leader of the Apollo 11 mission, and ultimately was the first man to set foot on the surface of the Moon. The film is based on the book First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen. In addition to Gosling as Armstrong, the film also stars Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Ciarán Hinds, Christopher Abbott, Patrick Fugit, and Lukas Haas.

The film is far more a biographical portrait of Armstrong than it is an exploration of the Apollo program and Apollo 11 mission. While those significant events form an important backdrop to the movie’s plot, it’s most emotional moments come in looks at Armstrong’s personal life. Neil Armstrong was historically known as a rather reserved individual, and Gosling plays that very effectively — in fact as I sat in the theater watching this film, I almost felt he was too emotionally disconnected. But, in retrospect, the film portrays his reaction to the loss of his young daughter very realistically — a loss that results in a very poignant moment when Armstrong actually finds himself on the lunar surface.

The performances in this film are tremendous, as is both the production design (the “look” of the film) and the soundtrack. But the true shining star is the special effects, which won the Academy Award for SFX. In particular, the meticulously recreated sequence in which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin bring the lunar lander to the moon’s surface is nail-bitingly intense. If this was supposed to be primarily about the Apollo 11 mission, I might’ve been a little disappointed in this film. But since it is more a biographical portrait of Armstrong leading up to the moon landing, as indicated by the title First Man, I found this to be an excellent film, well worth the viewing experience.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the From the Earth to the Moon mini-series, To the Moon (a special on NOVA) or In the Shadow of the Moon (a documentary film by Ron Howard), or the Neil Armstrong biographies First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen and Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight by Jay Barbree.]

[Also available in traditional print format.] [ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official First Man web site ]

Read Charlotte M.’s review of Jay Barbree’s book Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight from January 2015

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight by Jay Barbree

Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight
by Jay Barbree [Biography Armstrong]

Neil Armstrong - the first man to step on the moon. This is not a story of Armstrong's lifelong flight from the police, as a friend jokingly questioned. Rather, this covers his training, his career as a pilot in the Korean War, his NASA career, and his life after he left the space program. There is excellent background on all the Mercury and Gemini flights, and most of the Apollo flights, as well as some of the Soviet flights. We meet most of the astronauts and some of the cosmonauts. We also get a full five enthralling chapters on Apollo 11's historic flight to, and return from, the moon. There are photos on nearly every page, a good many I hadn't seen before and some are very moving. My only complaint - all the photos are black & white. When tragedy struck again, Armstrong returned to NASA briefly as Vice Chairman of the commission that investigated the Challenger accident. Barbree was best friends with Armstrong, good friends with most of the astronauts and we get some good stories. Definitely a bromance with the fliers and the space program but Barbree doesn't cut NASA any slack for its mistakes and later failures. A must-read for the space fan and I defy you to not tear up throughout the telling. -- recommended by Charlotte K. - Bennett Martin Public Library [ see Charlotte's Reviewer Profile and more of her reviews ]

[ official NASA Bio for Neil Armstrong ] | [ Jay Barbree on Wikipedia ]

Have you read this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!