With some accomplishments we tend to remember who is the best. But with others however it is always who is the first.
And that is certainly the case when it comes to landing on the Moon. The first man [and back then it could only have been a man] was Neil Armstrong. And he is the one we remember.
[Perhaps what could only be more remarkable is a man or a woman who accomplishes something truly historic…and goes on to be the only one to ever have accomplished it]
But for most of us what is remembered is the accomplishment itself. Few really know much about the man who accomplished it. Or all that went into the accomplishment by so many others. For many he was a “hero”; and we tend to not want our heroes to be beyond the pale.
Still, like all the rest of us, he is “human all too human”. But that will always mean different things to different people. Just as the accomplishment itself will always be encompassed in particular [and at times] conflicting narratives. And [of course] political prejudices.
Indeed, even the film itself is said to only more or less depict “what really happened”. There are the facts they either get right or wrong. And then there are the reactions to the facts that can only be encompassed in subjective vantage points. But the film is largely construed through the perspective of Neil Armstrong. And what did he get right or wrong?
The irony here for me is that on the day that Armstrong did take that first step on the Moon, I was a soldier in Vietnam. Where I was there was no access to the event. And I do not recall at all what my reaction was to the feat. In fact, this film is my first in depth look at all that unfolded back then.
IMDb
[b]Neil Armstrong’s sons Mark Armstrong and Rick Armstrong said that First Man (2018) was the most accurate portrayal of their father and their mother, Janet Armstrong.
Common errors were avoided in this film: Earth and the moon are always lit by the sun at the same angle, no clouds appear at high altitudes, the paradoxical nature of accelerating and braking rockets in orbit, the oxygen fire causes an implosion, not an explosion, no obtrusive lights hidden inside astronaut helmets to show off their faces, and there is no ambient sound in the vacuum of space.
Ryan Gosling suffered an injury while filming one of the many shuttle sequences. His partner, Eva Mendes, told him to go to the hospital after noticing the bizarre behavior of his passionately ranting to her about national doughnut thieves. It was later discovered that he had suffered a concussion and Mendes had unknowingly saved his life.
Armstrong’s famous quote as he stepped on the moon is the subject of historical controversy. The movie quotes accurately what was heard on Earth and in all recordings: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong later revealed that he intended to say “… one small step for [A] man …” and that he thought he did, but all efforts to extract this from the recording, even with electronics, have been inconclusive.[/b]
trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt1213641/tr … tt_trv_trv
wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Man_(film
trailer: youtu.be/PSoRx87OO6k
First Man [2018]
Directed by Damien Chazelle
[b]Neil [after a harrowing test flight “ballooning” and “bouncing off the atmosphere” ]: I’m down.
…
Neil [back to work after the death of his daughter]: Am I grounded, Joe?
Joe: Just write the report on the bounce, okay?
…
Deke: Why do you think spaceflight’s important?
Neil: I had a few opportunities in the X15 to observe the atmosphere. And it’s so thin; such a small part of the earth that you barely could see it at all. When you’re down here in the crowd and you look up, it seems pretty big and you don’t think about it too much, but when you get a different vantage point, it changes your perspective… I don’t know what space exploration will uncover, but I don’t think it will be exploration just for the sake of exploration. I think it will be more the fact that it allows us to see things that maybe we should have seen a long ago but just haven’t been able to until now.
…
John [Glenn]: Neil, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.
Neil: I’m sorry, is there a question?
John: Uh, what I mean is, do you think it will have an effect?
Neil: I think it would be unreasonable to assume that it would have no effect.
…
Voice [from newsreel]: Since the time of Jules Verne, man has imagined traveling to the moon and back. But making the trip as Jules Verne imagined – in a single spaceship – would require an enormous rocket. For this reason, NASA has come up with a new approach, lunar orbit rendezvous. The spacecraft traveling to the moon would actually consist of two, separate vehicles. A command ship that will remain in lunar orbit and a lunar lander that two crewman will take to the surface. After the men explore the surface, the lander lifts off the moon then rendezvous and docks with the command ship, which will take them back to earth. Thus, NASA will land the first men on the moon and return them safely home.
…
Deke: Here’s reality. Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, Vostok, Gagarin. The Soviets have beaten us at every single major space accomplishment. Our program couldn’t compete, so we’ve chosen to focus on a job so difficult, requiring so many technological developments, that the Russians will have to start from scratch. As will we. [/b]
He means going to the Moon.
[b]Deke: If we want to get this done, we first have to prove two ships can rendezvous and dock in space. That’s the primary mission of Project Gemini. Only after we master these tasks do we move on to Apollo and consider trying to land a man on the moon.
…
Gus: The Multi-Axis Trainer was designed to replicate roll coupling on three axes, the kind you might encounter in space. The challenge is to stabilize the machine before you pass out. First victim, Armstrong.
…
Janet [wife]: You okay?
Neil: Yeah… ust thinking about this lecture… it’s kinda neat.
Janet: What’s neat about it?
Neil: Well, it was about how to rendezvous with the Agena? If you thrust, it actually slows you down because it puts you in a higher orbit. So you have to reduce thrust and drop into a lower orbit in order to catch up. It’s backwards from what they teach you as a pilot but if you work the math, it follows. It’s kinda neat.
Janet: Yeah, it’s kinda neat.
[they both burst out laughing]
…
Ed: I got some bad news about Elliot.
Neil: No, Elliot’s in command of Gemini 9 now. I know Deke told me he bumped Elliot, but…
Ed: Neil. Elliot and Charlie were flying into St. Louis to train this morning. Their T-38 crashed on approach. There was a lot of fog…
…
Janet [to Neil]: Who was it?
…
Buzz: Elliot wasn’t aggressive enough. You of all people have to know that.
Neil: No. I don’t. I didn’t investigate the crash, I didn’t study the flight trajectory, and I wasn’t the one flying the plane, so I wouldn’t pretend to know anything.
Buzz: We’ll never be 100 percent sure.
…
Dave: What are you doing?
Pete [fiddling with a seat belt lock]: Hey, does anybody got a Swiss Army Knife?
Dave: What’d you say? A Swiss Army Knife? [/b]
Cue the first fly in space.
[b]Dave: You tell them.
Neil: Houston, we’re station-keeping on the Agena at about 150 feet.
…
Neil [to Houston]: Flight, we are docked.
…
Fucci: Gemini 8. How do you read?
Neil: We have serious problems. We’re, we’re tumbling end over end up here, we’re disengaged from the Agena.
Fucci: Okay. We got your spacecraft free indication here… what seems to be the problem?
Neil: we’re rolling up and we can’t turn anything off. We’re continuously increasing in a left roll…
Hodge: Did he say he could not turn the Agena off?
Fucci: No, he says he is separated from the Agena and he’s in a roll and he can’t stop it. It’s approaching one revolution per second, at that rate they will black out in 40 seconds.
[Deke gets the attention of PAO Paul Haney, motions for him cut the public feed]
…
Kraft: I want emergency landing options.
Deke: You don’t wanna wait to find out how much fuel he’s got left?
Kraft: Bob, what do you think?
Bob: I think they’d better land now.
…
Deke: I need you to go home.
Janet: Fine. Turn the box back on.
Deke: I’ll see what I can…
Janet: Now. Turn the box back on now.
Deke: …well, there’s security protocols
Janet: I don’t give a damn. I’ve got a dozen reporters on my front lawn, you want me telling them what’s going on?
Deke: Jan, you have to trust us, we’ve got this under control.
Janet: No, you don’t. 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.
…
Hamburg Press reporter [at a news conference after astronauts return to Earth]: In the midst of the spinning did you seem to realize or feel the presence of God closer than other times?
New York Times reporter: With this so hot on the heels of the loss of Charlie Bassett and Elliot See, do you question whether the program’s worth the cost? In money and in lives?
…
Lovell: Well, we’re very, very bullish on Apollo, Senator.
Senator: I should hope so, given the time we’ve spent developing it. Times have changed, you know. Half the country doesn’t think it’s worth it anymore.
Neil: We only learned to fly sixty years ago, so I think if you consider the technological developments in the context of history, it’s really not…
Senator: I’m considering it in the context of taxpayer dollars.
…
Neil [on phone at the White House]: I’m glad you called, I’m not sure if I’m helping or hurting over here.
Deke: Neil, we had a problem with the plugs out test…
Neil: That’s why we have tests, right? We’ll figure it out.
Deke: …there was a fire. There’s no easy way to say this…Ed, Gus and Roger, they’re gone.
…
Gilruth: Neil, the political fallout from another accident…
Neil: With all due respect, it’s not my job to worry about the political fallout.
Deke: The damn thing could have killed you.
Neil: Well, it didn’t.
Deke: A split second more and…
Neil: We need to fail. We need to fail down here so we don’t fail up there.
Gilruth: Neil, at what cost? Huh?
Neil: At what cost? It’s a little late for that question, isn’t it sir?
…
News anchor: You’ve lately taken a couople of swipes at the space program.
Kurt Vonnegut: I think it would be interesting to talk more about whether this is the proper thing to do with the public treasury. The sort of dreams I would have is a habitable New York City, for instance.
…
Reporter: What has been the reaction of your friends to this?
Woman: Well, they mostly think it’s rediculous that we’re spending so much money to go somewhere we don’t know anything about. And that the money could be used for a lot more helpful things.
…
Gil Scott Heron: A rat done bit my sister Nell with Whitey on the moon. Her face and arms begin to swell and Whitey’s on the moon. I can’t pay no doctor bill, but Whitey’s on the moon. Ten years from now I’ll be paying still, while Whitey’s on the moon. You know the man just upped my rent last night. Cause Whitey’s on the moon. No hot water, no toilets, no lights. But Whitey’s on the moon. I wonder why he’s upping me? Cause Whitey’s on the moon? I was already giving him like fifty a week. With Whitey on the moon.
…
Buzz: It’s a political rush job. Congress wouldn’t fund us to come in second. Why else would NASA be sending a virtually untested rocket to the moon?
Lovell: Thanks for the insight, Buzz. Always a pleasure with you.
Buzz: Doesn’t matter. He’s not in the lunar lottery.
Collins: And you are?
Buzz: The only guys they let on the LLTV since Neil’s accident are the ones who might land. That’s Neil or Conrad and I’m backup with Neil, so…
Collins: So you think you’re going to the moon.
Buzz: It’s been up for grabs since Gus died.
they all glare at him]
Buzz: I’m just saying what you’re thinking.
Neil: Well, maybe you shouldn’t.
…
Cronkite [on TV]: And so, the flight of Apollo 10 has performed the major function of its mission. It has proved through these daring three astronauts that all of the systems work properly and that there should be no reason why man cannot, perhaps as early as July, land on that picked spot on the moon’s equator… These are sailors of the sky and what we’ve seen and heard today make the great ocean voyages of the earthbound seem, well, earthbound indeed.
…
Janet: Neil, I need you to talk to the boys. Can you hear me? I need you to talk the boys. What are you doing?
Neil: I’m going to work.
Janet [angrily]: Well, just stop it. Just stop, just stop packing. What are the chances you’re not coming back? What are the chances this is the last time the boys are gonna see you?
Neil: I can’t give you an exact number.
Janet: I don’t want a fucking number, Neil! It’s not zero. Is it? Is it?
Neil: No.
Janet: No, it’s not. Pat doesn’t have a husband, those kids, they don’t have a father anymore. Do you understand what that means? What are the chances that’s gonna be Ricky and Mark? And I can’t tell them that their dad spent the last few minutes packing his briefcase. You’re gonna sit them down now, both of them, and you’re gonna prepare them for the fact that you might not ever come home. You’re doing that. You. Not me. I’m done. So you better start thinking about what you’re gonna say.
…
Mark [son]: Jimmy asked what you’re going to say when you get on to the moon.
Neil: Well, we’re not sure we’re gonna get on to the moon, a lot of things have to go right before that happens.
Mark: How long will you be gone?
Neil: Well, we launch in ten days. We’ll be up for eight. And then about a month in quarantine.
Mark: What’s quarantine?
Neil: We’ll be in isolation. To protect in case we, uh, carry any diseases from the lunar surface, or something of that nature. It’s not likely, but it’s a precaution.
Ricky: Do you think you’re coming back?
Neil: We have real confidence in the mission. And there are some risks, but we have every intention of coming back.
Ricky: But you might not.
Neil [after a long pause]: That’s right.
…
Gilruth: The White House sent down a contingency statement in the event of a Moon disaster.
[he rerads from a paper]
Gilruth: “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know there is no hope for their recovery. They will be mourned by their families; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown. Others will follow, and surely find their way home. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in nights to come will know there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind. Prior to the statement, President will telephone each of the widows-tobe. A clergyman will adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to the deepest of the deep.”
…
Neil [to CAPCON]: The eagle has wings…
…
Neil: Pretty rocky area.
Buzz: Those boulders are as big as cars. We can’t land there.
…
Neil: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
CAPCOM: Roger Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again, thanks a lot.
…
Neil: That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind…
…
Newscaster [on TV]: And in Washington, an anonymous citizen has placed a small bouquet on the grave of John F Kennedy with a note, “Mr. President, the Eagle has landed.” And indeed, on this day, it’s hard not to think back upon that speech our 35th President gave at Rice University just seven short years ago…
…
Kennedy [from old news clip]: But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why fly the Atlantic? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard… [/b]