First Man (film)

First Man
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Damien Chazelle
Screenplay by	Josh Singer
Produced by	Wyck Godfrey Marty Bowen Isaac Klausner Damien Chazelle
Starring	Ryan Gosling Claire Foy
Cinematography	Linus Sandgren
Edited by	Tom Cross
Music by	Justin Hurwitz
Production companies	Universal Pictures DreamWorks Pictures Temple Hill Entertainment Perfect World Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	August 29, 2018 (2018-08-29) (Venice) October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12) (United States)
Running time	141 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$59–70 million
Box office	$25.1 million

First Man is a 2018 American biographical drama film directed by Damien Chazelle and written by Josh Singer. Based on the book First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen, the film stars Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong, alongside Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Ciarán Hinds, Christopher Abbott, Patrick Fugit, and Lukas Haas, and follows the years leading up to the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. Steven Spielberg served as an executive producer.

First Man had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 12, 2018, by Universal Pictures. The film was critically praised, especially for Gosling and Foy's performances, Chazelle's direction and the moon landing sequence, and has grossed $25 million worldwide.

Plot

In 1961, NASA civilian test pilot Neil Armstrong (Gosling) is temporarily grounded after several unsuccessful X-15 flights. His daughter, Karen, is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, and passes away quickly. Neil decides to apply to NASA Astronaut Group 2, and is accepted, and befriends Elliot See (Fugit), another civilian test pilot, and Ed White (Clarke). Neil and his wife Janet (Foy) move their two sons, Rick and Mark, to a neighborhood in Houston with other astronaut families. As Neil begins training, Deke Slayton (Chandler) impresses upon the new astronauts of the importance of their mission, as the Soviet Union had reached every milestone in the Space Race ahead of the United States.

In 1965, the Armstrongs have settled in to Houston, and Neil awaits selection for a crew. Ed is assigned to Gemini 4, where he is expected to be the first person to complete an extravehicular activity (EVA). However, he becomes upset when Alexey Leonov performs the first EVA on Voskhod 2. Neil is informed that he will be the commander of Gemini 8, with David Scott (Abbott) as the pilot. Shortly before the mission, Elliot See and Charles Bassett are killed in a T-38 crash. Neil is upset at the funeral, especially with Buzz Aldrin (Stoll), who is critical of Elliot's ability as a pilot. Neil abruptly leaves, forcing Janet to ride home with Ed and his wife, where she reveals that Neil has never discussed his daughter's death with her.

Neil and David successfully launch on Gemini 8, and dock with the Agena target vehicle. Soon after docking, the spacecraft begins to spin increasingly faster. Neil separates from the Agena vehice, only exacerbating the issue. After shutting off the RCS thrusters, Neil is able to regain control of the spacecraft, and safely abort the mission. At mission control, Deke decides to cut the squawk box feed to Janet, leading her to angrily confront him and Ed. Neil faces criticism for his decision to abort the mission, and is upset that he is portrayed as a failure, despite saving himself and David and safely returning. NASA determines the Gemini 8 crew is not at fault, and Manned Spaceflight Director Bob Gilruth (Hinds) privately congratulates Neil, and explains that NASA may have lost public support if they had not safely returned. While discussing the incident with Ed and David, Ed reveals that he has been selected by Gus Grissom (Whigham) for the Apollo 1 mission, causing the group to speculate if he will be on the first lunar landing mission.

While performing a plugs-out test on January 27, 1967, a fire begins, and kills the Apollo 1 crew. Along with several other astronauts, Neil is at a press event at the White House when he hears the news. He returns to Houston, and the Apollo program is suspended for a safety review. The next year, Neil is selected to command Apollo 11, and Deke informs him that it will likely be the first lunar landing. Neil becomes increasingly involved in his work as he prepares for the mission. Janet becomes upset with Neil over the mission, as he has withdrawn from interacting with his family. As he prepares to leave for the launch, Janet confronts him, and insists that he explain the risks of the mission to their young sons. After telling them about the risks he faces, Neil says goodbye to his family and departs.

Apollo 11 successfully launches, and begins its journey towards the moon. Soon after Buzz and Neil undock in the lunar module, they begin receiving repeated alerts, and are told to ignore them by mission control. As they descend towards their landing site, Buzz realizes the area is full of large boulders, forcing Neil to take manual control of the spacecraft. With minimal fuel remaining, the lunar module successfully lands. The two astronauts exit the spacecraft, and Neil leaves a bracelet with Karen's name in the Little West crater. With their mission complete, the two astronauts depart from the moon, and the entire crew arrives back on Earth. The astronauts are placed in quarantine; Janet visits her husband, and the two share a kiss across the glass.

Cast

• Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong, the astronaut who became the first man to walk on the Moon during Apollo 11.
• Claire Foy as Janet Shearon, Armstrong's first wife.
• Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon during Apollo 11.
• Pablo Schreiber as Jim Lovell, Gemini astronaut and backup commander on Armstrong's Apollo 11 mission.
• Jason Clarke as Ed White, the first American to walk in space, who died during a pre-launch test for Apollo 1, which was to be the first manned Apollo mission.
• Kyle Chandler as Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, who became NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut Office.
• Christopher Abbott as David Scott, who flew with Armstrong on the Gemini 8 mission.
• Patrick Fugit as Elliot See, a member of NASA Astronaut Group 2. Armstrong and See were the backup crew for Gemini 5, and both were later chosen for command assignments: Armstrong on Gemini 8, and See on Gemini 9. See was killed in 1966 when his NASA trainer jet crashed into the McDonnell Space Center in St. Louis, where he was training for that mission.
• Lukas Haas as Michael Collins, the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 11, who also flew on Gemini 10.
• Shea Whigham as Gus Grissom, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. He was killed during a pre-launch test for Apollo 1, which was to be the first manned Apollo mission.
• Brian d'Arcy James as Joseph A. Walker, Armstrong's fellow X-15 test pilot who became the seventh man in space by taking that plane into space twice.
• Cory Michael Smith as Roger B. Chaffee, capsule communicator for the Gemini 3 and Gemini 4 missions, and the third crew member who was killed with Grissom and White in the Apollo 1 pre-launch test.
• J. D. Evermore as Christopher C. Kraft Jr., NASA's first Flight Director, who was in charge of America's first manned spaceflight and first manned orbital flight, as well as the Gemini 4 mission.
• John David Whalen as John Glenn, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. He became the first American to orbit the Earth.
• Ethan Embry as Pete Conrad, Pilot of Gemini 5 and backup commander for Gemini 8.
• Skyler Bible as Richard F. Gordon Jr., the backup pilot for Gemini 8 and pilot of Gemini 11.
• Ben Owen as John Hodge, the NASA Flight Director in charge of Gemini 8.
• Olivia Hamilton as Patricia White, Ed's wife.
• Kris Swanberg as Marilyn See, Elliot’s wife.
• Ciarán Hinds as Robert R. Gilruth, the first director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center.
• Shawn Eric Jones as Wally Schirra, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the ninth person to travel to space.
• William Gregory Lee as Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, who piloted the longest and final Mercury spaceflight. He was commander of Gemini 5.
• Steven Coulter as Guenter Wendt, the launch pad leader who was in charge of the spacecraft close-out crews, at the launch pads for the Mercury and Gemini programs, and all manned Apollo missions.

Production

In early 2003, actor-director Clint Eastwood and production people at the studio Warner Bros. bought the film rights to James R. Hansen's First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. Eastwood had previously directed as well as starred in the 2000 space-themed picture Space Cowboys, though he stated that he would likely not appear on camera in First Man.

Universal and DreamWorks ultimately took up the First Man project in the mid-2010s. Damien Chazelle, who had received critical acclaim for his work on 2014's Whiplash, signed onto the film's production that year, and hired Josh Singer to rewrite an existing script. Gosling, who starred in Chazelle's 2016 film La La Land, joined as well to portray Armstrong in November 2015, and Hansen was hired to co-produce the film because of his role as the book's author. Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen also produced the film through Temple Hill Entertainment, with pre-production starting in March 2017. Principal photography began in Atlanta in November 2017. To recreate Armstrong's home, the production crew built a replica of it in an empty lot, while the moon landing sequence was shot in a local rock quarry at night. Chazelle and cinematographer Linus Sandgren chose to shoot this sequence on IMAX 70mm film as opposed to the 16mm and 35mm film the rest of the film was shot on.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2018. It screened at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2018, and at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2018. It was theatrically released in the United States on October 12, 2018, by Universal Pictures.

Soundtrack

Untitled

The musical score for First Man was composed by Justin Hurwitz.

The digital album was released through Back Lot Music on October 12, 2018.

No.	Title	Performers	Length
1.	"X-15"	Justin Hurwitz	1:22
2.	"Good Engineer"	Justin Hurwitz	1:06
3.	"Karen"	Justin Hurwitz	0:45
4.	"Armstrong Cabin"	Justin Hurwitz	1:15
5.	"Another Egghead"	Justin Hurwitz	1:05
6.	"It'll Be an Adventure"	Justin Hurwitz	0:41
7.	"Houston"	Justin Hurwitz	2:16
8.	"Multi-Axis Trainer"	Justin Hurwitz	2:54
9.	"Baby Mark"	Justin Hurwitz	0:47
10.	"Lunar Rhapsody" (featuring Les Baxter)	Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman	3:04
11.	"First to Dock"	Justin Hurwitz	1:27
12.	"Elliot"	Justin Hurwitz	0:28
13.	"Sextant"	Justin Hurwitz	1:45
14.	"Squawk Box"	Justin Hurwitz	1:54
15.	"Searching For the Aegena"	Justin Hurwitz	1:51
16.	"Docking Waltz"	Justin Hurwitz	3:22
17.	"Spin"	Justin Hurwitz	1:15
18.	"Naha Rescue 1"	Justin Hurwitz	1:05
19.	"Pat and Janet"	Justin Hurwitz	1:34
20.	"The Armstrongs"	Justin Hurwitz	2:25
21.	"I Oughta Be Getting Home / Plugs Out"	Justin Hurwitz	1:10
22.	"News Report"	Justin Hurwitz	0:42
23.	"Dad's Fine"	Justin Hurwitz	1:03
24.	"Whitey on the Moon"	Leon Bridges	1:48
25.	"Neil Packs"	Justin Hurwitz	1:25
26.	"Contingency Statement"	Justin Hurwitz	1:56
27.	"Apollo 11 Launch"	Justin Hurwitz	5:50
28.	"Translunar"	Justin Hurwitz	1:01
29.	"Moon"	Justin Hurwitz	1:07
30.	"Tunnel"	Justin Hurwitz	0:52
31.	"The Landing"	Justin Hurwitz	5:31
32.	"Moon Walk"	Justin Hurwitz	1:29
33.	"Home"	Justin Hurwitz	1:51
34.	"Crater"	Justin Hurwitz	2:00
35.	"Quarantine"	Justin Hurwitz	2:15
36.	"End Credits"	Justin Hurwitz	4:19
37.	"Sep Ballet (Bonus Track)"	Justin Hurwitz	1:17
Total length:			1:07:57

Reception

Box office

As of October 14, 2018, First Man has grossed $16.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $8.6 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $25.1 million.

In the United States and Canada, First Man was released alongside Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween and Bad Times at the El Royale, and was projected to gross $18–25 million from 3,600 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $5.8 million on its first day, including $1.1 million from Thursday night previews at 2,850 theaters. It went on to debut to $16.5 million at 3,640 theaters, finishing third at the box office, behind holdovers Venom and A Star Is Born. Deadline Hollywood alleged that the under-performance did not have too much to do with the controversy involving the American Flag and more with the 141 minute runtime and the film's focus on drama, although Forbes speculated the backlash indeed played a factor.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 280 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "First Man uses a personal focus to fuel a look back at a pivotal moment in human history - and takes audiences on a soaring dramatic journey along the way." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100, based on 55 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 79% positive score.

Owen Gleiberman of Variety called the film "so revelatory in its realism, so gritty in its physicality, that it becomes a drama of thrillingly hellbent danger and obsession." Writing for IndieWire, Michael Nordine awarded the film a B+, describing it as "A powerful experience that will inspire renewed awe of what Armstrong and his ilk did." Nordine praised the opening flight sequence, Gosling's performance and Chazelle's direction. Diana Dabrowska from Cinema Scope wrote, "Armstrong's trip becomes a means for emotional emancipation, a backdrop for an intimate, universal story about dealing with trauma." Peter Howell of the Toronto Star praised the moon landing sequence, writing: "When the Eagle finally lands on the moon in First Man, the picture truly soars." Nicholas Barber of the BBC gave it a five-star rating, stating that "Gosling and Foy's performances in First Man are probably too unshowy to win awards. But they should, because they could hardly have been bettered. The same goes for the whole of this extraordinary film."

A. O. Scott, of The New York Times, wrote that the film “gets almost everything right, but it’s also strangely underwhelming. It reminds you of an extraordinary feat and acquaints you with an interesting, enigmatic man. But there is a further leap beyond technical accomplishment — into meaning, history, metaphysics or the wilder zones of the imagination — that the film is too careful, too earthbound, to attempt.” Anthony Lane of The New Yorker said the film "captures the grandeur and otherness of the Apollo saga, but not the Midwestern modesty of its hero, Neil Armstrong," writing: "Skillful and compelling this film may be, but, if Neil Armstrong had been the sort of fellow who was likely to cry on the moon, he wouldn’t have been the first man chosen to go there. He would have been the last."

Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair criticized Gosling's performance as "yet another man of few words, his hooded eyes and pursed lips again meant to signal depth but instead seeming a bit empty. Though Gosling lets some of his sly wit shine through in moments, there's a lot of passive, affectless mien going on in First Man." Stephanie Zacharek of Time said the film as a whole did not live up to Gosling's performance, writing: "This is a respectful movie, even a genuflecting one; there's never a moment when Chazelle fails to let you know he's doing important, valuable work. But that's the problem: The movie feels too fussed-over for such a low-key hero. Its star, Ryan Gosling, turns in a discreet, sensitive performance, almost too sensitive for the movie around it..."

Political controversies

Political stance of the film

Some critics and journalists found the film to be overtly American and criticized it for avoiding certain topics, including race and modern politics; others said the film lacked patriotism and was a reflection of the modern political climate. Richard Brody of The New Yorker described the film as "a right-wing fetish object", calling it "a film of deluded, cultish longing for an earlier era of American life, one defined not by conservative politics but, rather, by a narrow and regressive emotional perspective that shapes and distorts the substance of the film." Writing for The Daily Beast, Kevin Fallon argued the film was the most patriotic since American Sniper and wrote, "The moon landing comes near the end of the 140-minute film. The previous two hours are spent depicting the American ingenuity and brain trust, not to mention the selfless bravery, required to put Armstrong and his team on the moon, focusing on the sacrifice they and their families were forced to make."

Conversely, Armond White of the National Review said that the casting of non-American actors (including Gosling, Foy and Clarke) in key roles was intentional, and that "American ambition and achievement take a back seat to cynicism and wifely resentment". He also wrote: "Patriotism is a personal thing; deliberate dispassion about American history is a contemporary Hollywood tragedy." Writing for The Mary Sue, Kate Gardner described the film as apolitical, but wrote it was "impossible for me to divorce First Man from the modern political climate." She stated she was "glad they decided against making it a story of American exceptionalism, but as with most historical films, they decide to focus mostly on white men."

American flag controversy

On August 31, 2018, it was reported that the film would not include a scene of Armstrong and Aldrin planting the American flag on the Moon. Florida Senator Marco Rubio described the omission as "total lunacy". Chazelle responded with a statement, saying: "I show the American flag standing on the lunar surface, but the flag being physically planted into the surface is one of several moments [...] that I chose not to focus upon. To address the question of whether this was a political statement, the answer is no. My goal with this movie was to share with audiences the unseen, unknown aspects of America's mission to the Moon." The Armstrong family also released a statement, saying: "We do not feel this movie is anti-American in the slightest. Quite the opposite. But don't take our word for it. We'd encourage everyone to go see this remarkable film and see for themselves." Producer Wyck Godfrey told Deadline Hollywood the scene was not included because Chazelle "wanted to be truly emotionally back with the character [Armstrong] and process the emotional journey."

Ryan Gosling said it was his view that Armstrong's moon walk, "transcended countries and borders," according to quotes featured in The Daily Telegraph, reportedly from a press conference at the Venice Film Festival. "I think this was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement [and] that's how we chose to view it," Gosling reportedly said. "I also think Neil was extremely humble, as were many of these astronauts, and time and time again he deferred the focus from himself to the 400,000 people who made the mission possible."

Buzz Aldrin, who landed on the Moon with Armstrong on Apollo 11, responded to the controversy with a tweet containing the hashtags "#proudtobeanAmerican #freedom #honor #onenation #Apollo11 #July1969 #roadtoApollo50," with two photos of him and Armstrong planting the flag on the Moon.

United States President Donald Trump commented on the film, "It's unfortunate. It's almost like they're embarrassed at the achievement coming from America, I think it's a terrible thing. When you think of Neil Armstrong and when you think of the landing on the moon, you think about the American flag. For that reason, I wouldn't even want to watch the movie."

Following the film's below-expectations opening of $16.5 million, some analysts speculated that the flag controversy was in-part to blame.

External links

• First Man at IMDb
• Official website