An extraordinary, ordinary man.

Rating: 8/10 (22 October 2018)

Trotted off to the pictures tonight to see this, the new biopic of Neil Armstrong, and came away very impressed.
First Man documents Neil's life and career, starting with his role as a test pilot in 1961 and culminating on July 20th 1969 when he and Buzz Aldrin became the first and second men to take that small step (and giant leap) onto the Moon.
Potential spoilers ahead (but you surely know the story):
It's a story we all know so well but while First Man spares no expense or detail in documenting the missions undertaken by Armstrong and his fellow astronauts, its primary goal is to show the character of Armstrong the human being, the everyday pressures felt by him, his wife and his family and the place of Space exploration in a society that was undergoing seismic changes.
Armstrong was, by all accounts, a very straight-laced, emotionally muted and methodical person. It is these characteristics that got him to where he did and Ryan Gosling, an actor who often plays characters that live within themselves (Drive springs to mind), is perfect here. Opposite him, Claire Foy continues to bolster her impressive CV, laying bare for all to see the pressures of being an astronaut's wife. Dealing with personal turmoil, she can't escape in the way that her husband can, isolated and trapped as she is while he uses his work as an escape.
The film is slow-paced because it's not primarily an action film, it is an account of ordinary, real life people who happen to be doing extraordinary things, bankrolled by the richest government on Earth, in pursuit of a slain President's vision. When First Man does pursue the actual test flights and missions, however, it truly shines.
The sense of claustrophobia, peril and stress is palpable for the viewer as we remain in the cockpit/capsule for the duration. When it hits the fan, there is no music, no outside shots of the craft; it all takes place inside the module in order to convey just how dangerous a situation the astronauts placed themselves in time and again. This wasn't Hollywood; this was real and the film is excellent at conveying that and if you needed any more convincing of the costs involved, there are plenty of funerals to hammer the point home.
All of which culminates in the Moon landing, the reason Armstrong is one of the most famous and revered men in history, and the highlight of the film. After a typically tense and challenging descent (Foy's observation that NASA are "boys building things from Balsa wood" rings true throughout), Houston hears that "the Eagle has landed" and Armstrong and Aldrin set foot on the Moon.
Here, Damien Chazelle does everything right; as the door opens, there are no great swells of triumphant music, no whoops and cheers. There's nothing but silence. Intense, complete silence like one would indeed experience in a world with no atmosphere. It's very powerful to hear nothing as you gaze out onto a cold, grey, untouched alien world and the entire Moon scene had me utterly transfixed.
I've gone on long enough now but I would highly recommend First Man. I've read reviews slating it for being slow paced (it's a biopic of an extraordinary and yet ordinary man) and also for being nauseating to watch in the truest sense (you will feel like you've been through a washing machine spin cycle at times but that is what it was like onboard when stuff went wrong). It won't be for everyone but I loved it and I left the cinema feeling like I better knew one of history's great heroes and the team behind him.
If nothing else, the scene on the Moon is cinema at its absolute best.
8/10.