Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) was a civilian test pilot who was selected to be an astronaut for Project Gemini. He suffered personal loss before his selection for Gemini because his daughter had just died. Neil Armstrong would go on to be the first man to step on the moon apart of the Apollo 11 mission seven years later in July 1969. Armstrong was a smart man who felt more alive when he was flying or in space where he seemed aloof when he was with his family (as he kept his emotions inside). His wife Janet (Claire Foy) was by Neil’s side as she supported his career every step.

FIRST MAN is the closet one will get to how it feels to be in a test plane 60,000 feet in the air or how it feels to be in a rocket capsule. I also felt the claustrophobia of the rocket capsule, but FIRST MAN is also a work of beauty. It is a wonderful portrait of an astronaut and an interesting look at the various things involved during the early days of NASA. It is a gritty and realistic biopic that also is a portrait of the 1960s space program and how people felt about it. I expect FIRST MAN to be nominated for many awards during award season as this is the best movie about the early American space program since THE RIGHT STUFF and APOLLO 11.

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