First Man (2018) - A Horror Film That Moves!

★★★★☆

I guess the Americans wanting to land on the Moon so bad was merely an irrational act of nationalism and patriotism as a result of the Cold War with the Soviet Union back then! The space race was no different from a war that the Americans thought they had to win even if it’d cost them lots of sacrifices and deaths! So ‘we choose to go to the Moon not because it’s easy but because it’s hard’ or ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ is actually like total bullshit propaganda! What leap? To where? I mean, what have we achieved and learned ever since? Have we made our Earth a better place to dwell in? Have we learned to cherish what we have even more? Have we been healthier, happier and less troubled? Men going to the Moon was by no means necessary. It had to happen just because some were being way too aggressive and proud and selfish to even care what should’ve been done for mankind here on Earth in lieu of burning a whole lot of money just to send few men up to the Moon!

‘First Man’ feels like a horror film plus certain touch of melancholy due to its haunting sound effects and the unpleasant, nauseous first person POV inside the chamber while the rocket is shooting up to the space. It makes the whole thing look like nothing triumphant but very much a horrifying, depressing gamble with the Death! This is not a film of how great Neil Armstrong was, the first man to step on the Moon. There’s nothing heroic here to feel excited about or proud of. Instead we see constant pain and struggles and sometimes fear of uncertainty in his eyes. I think him being so determined and desperate to want to go to the Moon afterwards was not because he wished to be looked up as a hero but probably because he considered it a road to redemption for whatever it is that is not mentioned in the film though, but we can see that he can’t seem to walk out of shadow of his daughter’s death till he finally gets to the Moon to finish what he thinks he has to, which almost moves me to tears indeed!

I tend to believe that Neil Armstrong made it to the Moon back in 1969, that was almost like 50 years ago, though the Russian have been claiming that it’s nothing but a hoax! The question is, why has there been no plan to send men back to the Moon again ever since? Have we lost the courage and adventurous spirit to explore the unknown? What is stopping us in fact? Have we finally come to our senses that we should solve our problems down here first and foremost? I guess not, because we’re planning on going to the Mars, which is 100% a suicide mission! So I think we must’ve been warned not to go up there again! By who or what, I don’t know. But I know that the Earth is the one and only home for us to be, and there will be no more! Any other places we’ve discovered out there are certainly beautiful to look at from afar but absolutely dangerous and even deadly if we get too close!