[JerryLBell]

Originally Posted by manaboutown

The American flag is not a little matter and not showing it is not "nothing". The second man to set foot on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, would agree with that! The United States of America put the first man on the moon and deserves credit. To not show the American flag on the moon in the film is simply a sick attempt at passive aggressive historical inaccuracy, something Hollywood films are noted for. Buzz Aldrin slams '''First Man''' movie controversy, posts photos of US flag on moon with '''Proud to be American''' hashtag | Fox News

Except that it is actually shown on the moon in the film. If not showing " the American flag on the moon in the film is simply a sick attempt at passive aggressive historical inaccuracy", then what exactly is making a controversy by claiming it's not shown when it actually is? When I saw the film in the theater, some guy shouted out "WHERE'S THE FLAG?" in an angry tone about two second after Armstrong first stepped out onto the moon, well before Aldrin had come out of the capsule and well before they would have, together, planted the flag. When the flag appeared on the screen a few minutes later, I felt like shouting back, "THERE'S the flag, moron!" but though I would not disturb my fellow movie goers further.

The film centers around the experience of being the first man on the moon and is thus about Neil Armstrong. It's a character-driven movie, not the simplistic or jingoistic film about American exceptionalism that some folks wanted it to be. And the film is extremely accurate on the technical details. Compared to 99% of science fiction films, space travel here is shown laborious, slow, tedious and tiresome, punctuated by moments of sheer terror. But that's the way the technology was (and it hasn't improved all that much since then).

As a fan of character-driven films, I found this one quite good. As a space buff of long standing, I was thrilled. No film is for everybody though and your mileage may vary.