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mainer

(12,188 posts)
Sat Feb 9, 2019, 06:25 PM Feb 2019

"First Man". OMG what a film

Ryan Gosling so beautifully underplayed the part of Neil Armstrong. The intensity of his eyes, while being utterly, coldly, calm. I wonder if Armstrong was really like that.

The writing, too, was fantastic. Very understated, tense, and full of realistic NASA jargon. This was a really believable look at what astronauts and NASA really is like.

Unlike that stupid GRAVITY.

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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"First Man". OMG what a film (Original Post) mainer Feb 2019 OP
Never got to see it. edbermac Feb 2019 #1
Great movie... ADX Feb 2019 #2
We thoroughly enjoyed! Docreed2003 Feb 2019 #3
I did a lot of NASA research for a book I wrote mainer Feb 2019 #4
First Man Movie StevenBrown Feb 2019 #5
Well you know from my thread that I LOVED IT. mainer Feb 2019 #6
Some of my friends pressbox69 Feb 2019 #8
Not a big fan of this movie pressbox69 Feb 2019 #7
I just watched this movie last night. llmart Mar 2019 #9
Perhaps the greatest pressbox69 Mar 2019 #10
I felt like a major subtext was "Man Is First; Woman, Second... If That." SuprstitionAintthWay Apr 2019 #11
 

ADX

(1,622 posts)
2. Great movie...
Sat Feb 9, 2019, 06:34 PM
Feb 2019

...with excellent performances by Gosling as Neil Armstrong and Claire Foy as his wife.

Docreed2003

(17,852 posts)
3. We thoroughly enjoyed!
Sat Feb 9, 2019, 06:49 PM
Feb 2019

I'm not sure where some of the poor reviews came from, because I thought the film was really well done and it stuck fairly close to the true story for a Hollywood film.

mainer

(12,188 posts)
4. I did a lot of NASA research for a book I wrote
Sat Feb 9, 2019, 08:23 PM
Feb 2019

and this film captured what the culture is really like inside NASA, and the kind of people who join the space program. I appreciate the fact they didn't dumb down the acronyms and kept the dialogue realistic. And portrayed astronauts as the fiercely dedicated people they are.

My big beef with GRAVITY was with how stupid and helpless the Sandra Bullock character was. NASA people I know hated that character.

 

StevenBrown

(6 posts)
5. First Man Movie
Tue Feb 12, 2019, 06:20 AM
Feb 2019

Hello, guys, I didn't watch First Man movie, is it really good movie or only a waste of time to watch this movie? Any suggestion

mainer

(12,188 posts)
6. Well you know from my thread that I LOVED IT.
Tue Feb 12, 2019, 01:36 PM
Feb 2019

The acting was superb. But it was painful watching the Apollo tragedy again.

pressbox69

(2,252 posts)
8. Some of my friends
Wed Feb 13, 2019, 02:07 AM
Feb 2019

complained that Armstrong came off as a dullard. I thought it was too long. I thought it might be a problem when at the opening of the film the star thanked the audience for coming to see it on the big screen. Ironic that in ROMA they go to see the movie MAROONED.

llmart

(16,331 posts)
9. I just watched this movie last night.
Mon Mar 18, 2019, 08:00 AM
Mar 2019

I agree with you that it was very well done and Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy were terrific! I'm old enough to remember the moon landing. Got married the day before. This movie brought back the pride we all felt in our country and our space program. Growing up in the 50's and 60's whenever there was a televised launch the teachers would roll in the black and white TV's and we would all get to watch it.

Ironically, I have a son who also loved everything about space and science and math. He is now an engineer at KSC working on the next moon landing! I couldn't be prouder.

pressbox69

(2,252 posts)
10. Perhaps the greatest
Fri Mar 22, 2019, 05:33 AM
Mar 2019

event in the history of mankind, depicted in a very slow mechanical way. Sorry but I found it to be too slow.

11. I felt like a major subtext was "Man Is First; Woman, Second... If That."
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 09:08 PM
Apr 2019

Which was very much the world of the 1960s generally and NASA even moreso at the time, derivative as the space program was from its twin masculine foundations of military culture and the STEM professions.

Claire Foye did well at representing how constricting if not suffocating it was for a human being to try to fill that specific, very tightly defined, unprecedentedly public role of 1960s hero astronaut's wife. Esp. a hero as big and emotionally distant as Neil Armstrong.

It all did make for a chilly movie. But appropriately so. Travelling out of earth orbit and trying to step onto a cold, sterile rock in space 1/4 million miles away is itself quite a sobering, spine-chilling undertaking.

First Man's depiction of the lunar surface was beautiful work. I enjoyed Gravity, too.

I'm a proud ex NASA employee myself; was new with them when the 1st Space Shuttle went up.

If I had my way about $150 billion of DoD's annual budget would be appropriated to NASA instead.

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