Video: What First Man does and doesn’t say about Neil Armstrong

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What First Man tells you about Neil Armstrong—and what it doesn’t. Video shot and edited by Justin Wolfson. (Transcript available)

Welcome to “The Unbearable Critic,” a new video series we’re trying out. In it, our intrepid culture reporter and person-with-lots-of-opinions Sam Machkovech applies his critical eye to movies, books, TV, and anything else that catches his feisty fancy.

Our kickoff episode centers on First Man, the Neil Armstrong biopic starring Ryan Gosling that opens this coming Friday. This isn’t a full review—we’ve got one of those from space editor Eric Berger already—rather it’s a discussion of the craft and attention to detail that went into the movie (which is something Ars is quite comfortable analyzing; you’ve seen Tech on TV right?). Machkovech has compiled a list of three important things that the movie explains about Neil Armstrong—and three important things that were left out.

The consensus at the Ars Orbiting HQ is that First Man overall does an excellent job both with the personal and also the technical details around Armstrong’s Gemini and Apollo missions—which is gratifying to hear, since CollectSPACE editor (and good friend of Ars Technica) Robert Pearlman was one of the movie’s technical advisors. As you’d expect, Ars has quite a bit to say about those details, and we hope you’ll give the video a peek.

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https://arstechnica.com/?p=1392065