[Film]'First Man' omits the American flag being planted on the moon

For all those criticizing the movie, there is a simple fix - go and raise a few million USD and make your own (more accurate) version!

 

This is a human accomplishment. In the age of trump, anything less than standing for the anthem is viewed as terroristic

 

Well, and we're arguing about a movie that (I think) none of us could have possibly seen. That includes me, of course, and I shouldn't even be arguing about something I haven't seen, even though I know something about it in this case. Maybe it sucks and got all kinds of things wrong.

I do think this, however: there are people with something to gain by making Americans feel divided, even about something like Apollo that could really make us feel proud and united. To me, these people who want to keep us arguing are the people who brought up the flag-planting thing. To others, I guess, the movie makers were divisive by not showing the moment of flag planting.

I still say: to show those minutes in all their accurate historical glory would have made it look like a parody, especially when it got knocked over by rocket exhaust -- music swells, astronaut huffs and puffs with flag package, music swells louder, astronaut reports problem in clinical engineering language to mission control, as flag fails to unfurl, etc. But whatever.

 

Just a question, Professor:

How accurate were the films "Gravity" and "Interstellar" and "The Last Starfighter" and "The Right Stuff" and "2001" and...I've run out of movies and beverages ...but Sir Dr, could you explain this to an amateur?

 

Well, one the one hand, the Cold War was stupid and probably unnecessary; on the other hand, it was destructive, deadly and economically and politically destabilizing.

 

How did I miss this set of questions? Okay, what I will do is rank them best to worst in terms of physics accuracy. (And I haven't really seen the Right Stuff in a long time.)

1. 2001 (tons of laid off aerospace engineers worked on this film with Kubrick; NASA was already downsizing by the late 60's.)
2. The Right Stuff
3. Gravity (one or two errors, including notably a completely false star field for no good reason and some angular momentum trouble)
4. Interstellar (hard to fault them b/c they actually made some publishable black hole discoveries and did a lot of things right, but the communication, teseract (sp) stuff, and surviving any kind of wormhole trip ranges from speculative to ludicrous, in that order.

The Last Starfighter is so accurate that I consider it a documentary so it doesn't belong on that list.

On topic...
Director of "First Man" responds and seems to make many of the same points I made earlier in the thread about condensing such a time-consuming historical event into a movie. Chazelle:

"In “First Man” I show the American flag standing on the lunar surface, but the flag being physically planted into the surface is one of several moments of the Apollo 11 lunar EVA that I chose not to focus upon. To address the question of whether this was a political statement, the answer is no. My goal with this movie was to share with audiences the unseen, unknown aspects of America’s mission to the moon — particularly Neil Armstrong’s personal saga and what he may have been thinking and feeling during those famous few hours.

I wanted the primary focus in that scene to be on Neil’s solitary moments on the moon — his point of view as he first exited the LEM, his time spent at Little West Crater, the memories that may have crossed his mind during his lunar EVA. This was a feat beyond imagination; it was truly a giant leap for mankind. This film is about one of the most extraordinary accomplishments not only in American history, but in human history. My hope is that by digging under the surface and humanizing the icon, we can better understand just how difficult, audacious and heroic this moment really was. "

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/03/entertainment/damien-chazelle-flag-neil-armstrong-biopic/index.html

Armstrong's family, First Man author, defend film's decisions:
https://deadline.com/2018/08/first-man-flag-controversy-damien-chazelle-response-1202455597/

 

This is a lie -- the movie was made to bring down Trump.

 

Obviously deliberate.

On a serious note, it’s must be mentally painful to constantly wear the victim lens.

 

I can't believe the hate for Murica - they don't put the flag in the movie? That's the whole reason we sent him there in the first place!

 

It's a ****ing movie... if you are offended by this, you should never be able to call someone a "snowflake" again.

 

Well, anyway see it yet? I'm seeing it w Mrs B-Bob and mom and dad this weekend--can't wait.

The fresh air interview w the director was awesome, all about the technical details and Armstrong himself.

 

Just got back from an IMAX screening.

The last 10 minutes aka "the landing" shot entirely in IMAX, is one of the most breathtaking set-pieces in cinematic history -- beautiful, captivating, and perfectly heightened by Justin Hurwitz's mesmerizing score.

10/10.

 

Does it leave you in a mood to harass old white dudes on social media and at restaurants, and scream how they’re ruining America for everyone else?

That was it’s clear agenda from what I heard.