Because I enjoyed my recent excursion to cinema, I decided it might be good idea to use my spare time and enjoy some more movies. Biopic of legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong seemed like interesting proposition and not so long ago I read about him with greatest interest, so even though I was lolling around after a dinner and considered just staying in, I forced myself to get up, get dressed and get out of the house, simply for the sake of taking a walk and doing something.
It was underwhelming.
And I know exactly why - movies about historical characters can sometimes be too respectful, to the point where in order to be correct and deferential, these affairs just end up bland. We see the actors, we understand who are they supposed to be but its all kind of lukewarm chamomile tea and the main focus mostly symbolises real people, while occasional supporting actors have much more meat to them. This, cinematic Neil Armstrong is silent hero, unable to show his emotions and director Damien Chazelle clearly worships the idea of manly struggle to stay strong and taciturn. His private world is falling apart, little daughter dies from cancer, colleagues and good friends are also dying in all sorts of accidents but instead of talking with his wife about it, he pushes everybody away and stares at the moon, his face showing no emotions whatsoever. Not sure what I think about Ryan Gosling who might have just followed director's instructions but this was a portrait of extremely reserved man who hardly ever cracked a smile - I guess if you are hero, than you take everything very seriously and can't talk to your children a night before journey from which you might never return (the movie has his wife forcing him to do this). Claire Foy as his wife has much more humanity because she is actually showing natural emotions: she is aware of dangers all the astronauts wives face, the responsibilities of raising a family and the possibility that her husband might never come back. Quote: "All these protocols and procedures to make it seem like you have it under control. But you're a bunch of boys making models out of balsa wood! You don't have anything under control!"
With all the visual effects and gritty, realistic scenes of what it feels like in a super-mega-shaky spacecraft, somehow the whole idea of space race and launching a moon expedition seemed a bit pointless to me - it was obviously a big deal in that time and a matter of political power but looking at all those astronauts who were dying left & right in accidents and leaving their families behind seems less heroic and more suicidal to me. I understand these people were living their dream and there is a huge pride in being part of something so monumental, however I am not some impressionable teenager now and looking from this perspective I see husbands leaving families behind - not completely convinced that sacrificing life for anything is really worth it. The movie depicts Armstrong silently suffering daughter's death but in reality, if things turned out differently she could have been just another fatherless child like so many others.
The only thing that I truly enjoyed was inclusion of beautiful, old 1947. recording by Les Baxter in the movie's soundtrack - being lover of all things old & strange, naturally I was familiar with it, in fact I might even have the recording somewhere.
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