First man is a good look into the MAN Neil Armstrong

Rating: 8/10 (12 October 2018)

Though I've been a fan of Neil Armstrong since I watched him walk on the moon as a kid. So, I was super excited this film was coming out.
Then, I heard that the director had dissed America in the movie not showing the American flag on the moon and defending that decision with some wishy-washy thing about Armstrong thinking they were ambassadors of all nations etc.
So, I thought about not going to see it. But, then I thought, "Hey; it's a movie about NEIL ARMSTRONG. I can't miss that." So, I went and was glad I did.
SPOILER ALERT:
Firstly, let's get the flag thing out of the way up front. They showed plenty American flags in the show - from the flag shoulder patches on their space suit to one of Armstrong's boys raising an American flag at school and finally a wide angle REAL footage shot of a (later than Apollo 11) Lunar Module on the surface of the moon with the American flag planted in the lunar soil. So, as an American, I was ok with that part of the movie.
But what really makes this movie is the look at all the things weighing on Armstrong the human being, husband, father and astronaut during his decision to become an astronaut and eventually to land on the moon. It explored the tragic death of their infant daughter Karen and how he kept that locked inside, his very low-key personality and engineer's mind analyzing and - most importantly, the strain of all this on his family life.
The only criticisms of this movie I noticed were minor ones; the film is no "Apollo 13" - seemingly a little less brightly lit and dynamic than that film, and I could've done without so much shaking the camera - especially during the launch sequences. That got wearisom on the eyes.
But, again; those are minor points. This is a pretty good movie, I'd say.