Going to the movies on Sunday afternoons is one of our favourite things to do, and yesterday's pick was "First Man," starring Ryan Gosling as the astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
Dh has been a NASA geek since childhood (he was founder & president of his junior high rocket club), & I well remember watching that first moon landing at my grandparents' house in Minnesota (I was 8). Together, we've seen (& loved) "The Right Stuff" and "Apollo 13." This movie fits in between those two, timewise.
I vaguely remembered hearing, when Neil Armstrong died a few years ago, that he & his first wife Janet (played in the movie by Claire Foy -- Queen Elizabeth in "The Crown") had lost a little girl to cancer... but I did not expect grief and loss to be the centrepiece of this movie. It was more of a personal portrait than a space epic (to dh's disappointment)(although there are plenty of scenes of rocket launches and moonwalking too -- mostly from the astronauts' perspective). Armstrong was a stoic and reserved man who did not show his emotions easily, even to his family -- but the death of his toddler daughter obviously affected him deeply -- as did the untimely deaths of many of his test pilot/astronaut friends and coworkers.
Now I'm tempted to pick up the book that provided the source material for the movie. (Another one for the TBR pile...!) I want to know if the scene near the very end of Armstrong's stint on the moon is true, or a Hollywood embellishment.
What movies have you seen lately?
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
I have not heard of this movie but it sounds so interesting, and I love Claire Foy since watching her in The Crown. I really loved Apollo 13, so I may check this one out.
ReplyDeleteI don’t really get to see new movies when they come out...going to theater is very pricey here and most things I end up seeing don’t really feel worth all that money afterwards. We used to go to more when we were part of our local newspapers’ reader rewards program and got invites to see new movies for free during special screenings, but that stopped when local theaters stopped putting movie listings in the paper, so they couldn’t offer these special screenings anymore. I think the last movie we watched was Couples Retreat, which we have seen many times before. The last “new” movie we got from the redbox was Game Night, and it ended up being ok but definitely a different movie than I was expecting.
DH is also a space enthusiast. Years ago, when we finally knew we'd never have children, I asked him what he wanted to do with the rest of our life. He said, "I suppose going to space is out of the question?"
ReplyDeleteMust look for the movie.
We haven't seen a movie for a while. I think the last one we saw was Crazy Rich Asians.
Oh! This makes me want to watch it more. The movie was on my radar, but maybe this would be a good activity this weekend.
ReplyDeleteTake kleenex!!
DeleteWhat really got me crying near the end was listening to JFK's speech about why America would go to the moon -- not because it was easy, but because it was hard. Sigh.