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First Man

Started by Head Gardener, September 24, 2018, 03:20:14 PM

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Head Gardener


SteveDave

I hope they make it home from the moon. I bet there'll be peril.

kidsick5000

It's really good. From the off, you realise just how nuts these missions were, little more than blasting a tin shoebox into space on a giant firecracker, albeit with a huge amount of brainpower behind it.
Armstrong is not the all-American hero. In fact Ryan Gosling seems to be channelling his character from Drive.

Head Gardener



looking forward to seeing First Man tomorrow but would really like to see Mandy but it ain't coming round these paaarts
still, this could be the best of both worlds

Quote from: kidsick5000 on September 27, 2018, 07:17:00 PM
It's really good. From the off, you realise just how nuts these missions were, little more than blasting a tin shoebox into space on a giant firecracker, albeit with a huge amount of brainpower behind it.
Armstrong is not the all-American hero. In fact Ryan Gosling seems to be channelling his character from Drive.

Yeah, I really liked it. I didn't expect the depiction of Armstrong to be a man consumed by grief and the entire moon mission to be a way for him to lay ghosts to rest.

Z

It was good but I couldn't help but view it in the current political climate. Doing anything at all about that period in time that isn't overwhelmingly critical just tends to come off as having a strong conservative streak these days. Chazelle definitely wasn't trying to play up to that side of things and he's getting heat from the worst of them for not doing so but I can't imagine very many people watching it seeing something like the Gil Scott Heron reference will read that as anything but "these bad people against this great thing"

Least assured direction out of his four films so far too, some of the space shots jarred hugely, the little family life montage bits were awkward and, given the obvious tree of life comparisons they'd generate, maybe should've been left out. Kind of viewed this as a positive tbh because the fear after La La Land was that he was just going to make competent horrible shite for decades.
Gosling was fine but when you make a point of casting dudes that look like guys from the 50 and 60s (Chandler, Hinds, Clarke, Whigham), Gosling is a bad fit on a pure optics level.

McChesney Duntz


Quote from: Z on October 13, 2018, 09:17:58 PM
It was good but I couldn't help but view it in the current political climate. Doing anything at all about that period in time that isn't overwhelmingly critical just tends to come off as having a strong conservative streak these days. Chazelle definitely wasn't trying to play up to that side of things and he's getting heat from the worst of them for not doing so but I can't imagine very many people watching it seeing something like the Gil Scott Heron reference will read that as anything but "these bad people against this great thing"


People bring to these whatever they want because many people can't make the distinction between their personal politics and what a piece of art is actually doing so I think people with that view will read it that way no matter what Chazelle did. I thought it very clear that the film wasn't in awe of the NASA process, we see how many people die to make it happen, Armstrong is depicted as a man emotionally shut off because of his grief and the journey is a personal one rather than an American victory. That's why the family montages are essential to this working, that's where the story is and Armstrong is depicted as a man who literally has to go to another planet to deal with his grief. And Buzz Aldrin comes across exactly as Barry Dodds claimed - a nobhead. So I think anyone taking this as hero worship of NASA was going to take that to the film with them and wilfully misunderstand the film.

Z

Quote from: worldsgreatestsinner on October 14, 2018, 03:39:24 PM
People bring to these whatever they want because many people can't make the distinction between their personal politics and what a piece of art is actually doing so I think people with that view will read it that way no matter what Chazelle did. I thought it very clear that the film wasn't in awe of the NASA process, we see how many people die to make it happen, Armstrong is depicted as a man emotionally shut off because of his grief and the journey is a personal one rather than an American victory. That's why the family montages are essential to this working, that's where the story is and Armstrong is depicted as a man who literally has to go to another planet to deal with his grief. And Buzz Aldrin comes across exactly as Barry Dodds claimed - a nobhead. So I think anyone taking this as hero worship of NASA was going to take that to the film with them and wilfully misunderstand the film.
That's all pretty on point and is a good argument for why Chazelle decided to do this film now.

I found the family montages quite weak though, Claire Foy was left with fuck all to work from and it was all just... it didn't work. It's probably pretty easy to pin down to a combo of age and a lack of any children of his own, probably being a bit aware of that he could've seen it as a challenge. When that stuff doesn't work, you've just got a stern man going through procedures and capping it off with a great thing.

greenman

Quote from: worldsgreatestsinner on October 14, 2018, 03:39:24 PM
People bring to these whatever they want because many people can't make the distinction between their personal politics and what a piece of art is actually doing so I think people with that view will read it that way no matter what Chazelle did. I thought it very clear that the film wasn't in awe of the NASA process, we see how many people die to make it happen, Armstrong is depicted as a man emotionally shut off because of his grief and the journey is a personal one rather than an American victory. That's why the family montages are essential to this working, that's where the story is and Armstrong is depicted as a man who literally has to go to another planet to deal with his grief. And Buzz Aldrin comes across exactly as Barry Dodds claimed - a nobhead. So I think anyone taking this as hero worship of NASA was going to take that to the film with them and wilfully misunderstand the film.

Does seem to be the nature of film criticism over the last decade or more that its become heavily politicised with a lot of commentary coming from people who don't seem to have much interest or taste in it.

bgmnts

Quote from: McChesney Duntz on October 14, 2018, 04:27:01 AM
This is how schizo the American overmind has gotten: First Man is apparently both a right-wing fetish object (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/first-man-reviewed-damien-chazelles-neil-armstrong-bio-pic-is-an-accidental-right-wing-fetish-object) and a cynical, anti-American hate-screed (https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/american-exceptionalism-not-first-man-falters/).

Its been that way for a good while I think.

I remember South park did an episode where the boys write a book called the Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs and its just full of disgusting content that makes people throw up but half the audience interprets it as having a rght wing message and the other half think it carries a left wing message when, in reality, its just some horrid, grotesque shite involivng Sarah jessica Parker.

Dr Rock

Was not aware Rodney Trotter was an astronaut. He did get in some scrapes though, I imagine this is related to one of Del Boy's schemes going awry.

easytarget

"Nah the fing is Rodney, the countdahn was shorter than I expected and ... you larf at this ... you're in space"
"In space? blahdy ell Del, I'm supposed to meet Casandra's dad this afternoon. How's it going to look me being in blahdy space?"

writes itself.

saltysnacks

Del: 'Thas wan small step for man'

Rodney: 'More like a giant leap for you ay Del?'

surreal

"Stick a pony in me Rocket..."

Mr_Simnock

Just watched this now and really enjoyed it. Those sequences during missions where something goes wrong and he just manages to get him self out of it genuinely scared me which hasn't happened at the cinema for a long time. Made me realise a lot just how brave they all were for sitting on top of massive missiles without much between them and the (lack of ) elements.

Keebleman

Saw it in IMAX.  Why the hell did Chazelle choose to film so much of it in close-up?  Surely the claustrophobic nature of the flights would have been better emphasised by shooting everything outside the cockpits as wide as possible.

And I thought Hollywood had rediscovered tripods?  Why did Chazelle decide to boycott them here?

And did Chazelle choose to make this film just cos his name sounds like a rocket taking off?

surreal

Quote from: Keebleman on October 24, 2018, 01:04:56 AM
Saw it in IMAX.  Why the hell did Chazelle choose to film so much of it in close-up? 

Me too and I thought exactly the same thing - gigantic faces on screen!!!

To add to the feeling of a man confined? Armstrong is a man repressing his grief, his feelings about everything so it makes sense that his entire environment feels restricted until he gets on the moon.

Keebleman

Quote from: worldsgreatestsinner on October 24, 2018, 12:57:58 PM
To add to the feeling of a man confined? Armstrong is a man repressing his grief, his feelings about everything so it makes sense that his entire environment feels restricted until he gets on the moon.

Possibly. When the lunar module's door opens there is an enormous panorama of the moonscape and the music swells to ear-bursting volume.  But the effect is actually a little comic, mainly cos of the OTT score but also because the model/CGI moonscape somehow just looks like a model rather than an enormous physical expanse.