First Man
Director Damian Chapelle
Staring Ryan Gosling ,Jason Clarke And Claire Foy
Writer John Singer
Review Mirre Jennings
The First Man is as much the story of Neil Armstrong the person as it is about the first Man on the moon. The cinematography is the first character in this movie.
Starting with extreme close up shots of Armstrong and his family at home.The viewer is thrust straight into their situation the style of filming is deeply personal and intimate. The colouring and filming style feels exactly right for the era with hand held filming used in some scenes and the colour hews exactly how you remember they were.Its the underplay in many areas that draws you in and makes you stay there at 2hrs 21. Minutes this is a time investment but one that pays off in spades. The time is taken to show the small details that give this movie the authenticity it deserves.
Goslings performance is subtle and very measured almost withheld at times which is exactly how men were, the underplay makes each event more dramatic as you measure his inner voice to your own.
Foy as the astronaughts wife is supportive but deeply concerned with the risky undertaken when all she wanted was a stable life . So many astronaughts lost their lives in horrible ways in testing and each day they were placed in harms way even before leaving earth.
The scenes inside the space capsule with the deafening noise and vibration makes us wonder how they ever made it into orbit and then were able to land and return .The spaceships were reminiscent of something a backyard mechanic had to put together with rivets and sheet metal not to mention the tight confines for many days while travelling on a what was basically a large bomb with no help available should anything go wrong.
The reality of space travel in the 1960s is that it was very experimental very dangerous and not supported by a large portion of the population at a the time and yet somehow they acomplished a feet which has not been repeated.
The views from outer space are humbling and beautiful. Much like this movie it unfolds before us like a work of art.
4/5
