Armstrong biopic defended amid flag flap
Ryan Gosling is not an American, but he is part of a species that visited a celestial body beyond Earth.
That is one perspective the Canadian used in describing NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, and specifically Neil Armstrong, whom he plays in First Man — which comes to the Toronto International Film Festival next week.
The film, directed by Damien Chazelle, depicts the 1969 mission to the moon. But it does not show Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin unfurling and planting an American flag on the lunar surface — an omission that has sparked outrage and calls for a boycott in some American conservative circles.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz weighed in Saturday, writing on Twitter: “Really sad: Hollywood erases American flag from moon landing. This is wrong, and consistent with Leftists’ disrespecting the flag & denying American exceptionalism.”
The movie’s creators, including Gosling, say they view the moment as a human achievement more than an American one, and have suggested Armstrong, who died in 2012, did not believe he was an “American hero.”
Armstrong’s sons have also defended the film’s depiction of events and its attention to quieter, lesser-known aspects of their father’s life. “This story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement ‘for all mankind,’ as it says on the plaque Neil and Buzz left on the moon,” according to a statement released Friday by Rick and Mark Armstrong.