{"id":179507,"date":"2018-08-31T23:32:32","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T03:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=179507"},"modified":"2019-05-26T12:09:09","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T16:09:09","slug":"armstrong-sons-filmmaker-defend-moon-landing-first-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/31\/armstrong-sons-filmmaker-defend-moon-landing-first-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Armstrong sons, filmmaker defend moon landing in ‘First Man’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThis story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement ‘for all mankind.\u201d (File Photo<\/a>: First Man\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 The sons of Neil Armstrong are defending Damien Chazelle’s docudrama about the moon landing after conservative pundits decried the film’s lack of emphasis on the American flag’s planting on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement Friday, Rick and Mark Armstrong, along with \u201cFirst Man\u201d author James R. Hansen, denied that Chazelle’s film is \u201canti-American in the slightest.\u201d \u201cQuite the opposite,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement ‘for all mankind,\u201d’ said the Armstrongs and Hansen. \u201cThe filmmakers chose to focus on Neil looking back at the earth, his walk to Little West Crater, his unique, personal experience of completing this journey, a journey that has seen so many incredible highs and devastating lows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though \u201cFirst Man\u201d includes several shots showing the American flag on the moon, it does not depict the flag planting. After the film premiered earlier this week at the Venice Film Festival, some commentators on social media who hadn’t seen the movie criticized the film. They were reacting largely to Ryan Gosling, who stars as Neil Armstrong, telling reporters in Venice that the astronaut’s accomplishments \u201ctranscend countries and borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Columnist Bill Kristol claimed the film was \u201ca foolish and pernicious falsification of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Chazelle said the decision around the flag planting wasn’t political but esthetic. The \u201cLa La Land\u201d filmmaker was motivated to portray the risks and challenges of the moon mission through the eyes of Armstrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d said Chazelle. \u201cTo 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 \u2014 particularly Neil Armstrong’s personal saga and what he may have been thinking and feeling during those famous few hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Film critics enthusiastically responded to the film, rocketing \u201cFirst Man\u201d to early lists of possible Oscar favourites. Universal Pictures will release it October 12.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 The sons of Neil Armstrong are defending Damien Chazelle’s docudrama about the moon landing after conservative pundits …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":179508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-jake-coyle","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216045,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179507\/revisions\/216045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}