For the half a billion people around the world who watched Apollo 11 land on the moon on July 29, 1969, there were several iconic moments, starting with Neil Armstrong putting his boot on the lunar surface and proclaiming, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Another iconic moment came when Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted an American flag during their moon walk, before getting back into the Eagle lunar module to rejoin Michael Collins in the command module and return to Earth.
Now this U.S. flag moment is at the center of a furious culture war over the hotly anticipated new Neil Armstrong biopic, “First Man,” starring Ryan Gosling as Armstrong and directed by Damien Chazelle (“La La Land”).
Right-wing Twitter users, conservative news sites and politicians like Senator Marco Rubio angrily claim the U.S. role in this historic human achievement is getting short-shrift in the film, which premiered this week at the Venice Film Festival.
But according to critics at Vanity Fair and the Daily Beast, the outrage is misplaced because it stems from a misunderstanding and inaccurate accounts about what’s depicted in the film. The misunderstanding has led to the belief that the film doesn’t at all show the U.S. flag on the moon.
Vanity Fair said the misunderstanding began when news sites aggregated a Telegraph story, which stated that “First Man” does not depict Armstrong and Aldrin planting the flag on the moon. It is technically true that the film does not have a scene specifically showing the flag being planted, according to a Vanity Fair correspondent who saw the movie at the Venice Film Festival.
“First Man,” however, shows the flag on the moon in multiple background shots, Vanity Fair said.
Marlow Stern, the chief entertainment writer for the Daily Beast, added in a reply to a tweet from an incensed Marco Rubio: “I’ve seen FIRST MAN and you see the American flag on the moon in several shots. Maybe wait to actually see something before feigning outrage.”
Neil Armstrong’s sons and his biographer also weighed in later Friday, saying in a statement that there “are are numerous shots of the American flag on the moon,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“This story is human and it is universal,” read the statement by Rick and Mark Armstrong and James R. Hansen, author of “First Man.”
They said, “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.”
They added: “This movie isn’t anti-American in the slightest.”
in First Man and that “the 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.”
The Telegraph story reported that the “absence of the stars and stripes was noted by critics.” The story then quoted Gosling as explaining the decision to not include a flag-planting moment. The actor said the film’s purpose was to show that this “giant leap for mankind” transcended “countries and borders.”
“I think this was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement (and) that’s how we chose to view it,” said Gosling, according to the Telegraph. “I also think Neil was extremely humble, as were many of these astronauts, and time and time again he deferred the focus from himself to the 400,000 people who made the mission possible.”
The story then quoted Gosling as joking, “I’m Canadian, so I might have cognitive bias.” The story also noted that director Chazelle, who previously worked with Gosling on “La La Land,” is French-Canadian.
The Telegraph story, Gosling’s comments and Gosling’s reference to his Canadian heritage combined to incite outrage among people who haven’t actually seen the movie, Vanity Fair said.
For example, the hosts of President Donald Trump’s favorite news show, “Fox and Friends,” quickly jumped into outrage mode, Mediate reported, with Ainsley Earhardt announcing Friday morning, “They decided not to use the flag in the film.”
Co-host Pete Hegseth also complained about Gosling not being American: “Ryan Gosling, himself a Canadian, has some things to say about whether Americans should get credit for this achievement or not.”
Daily Wire editor in chief Ben Shapiro voiced his outrage by taking to Twitter to share a video of President John F. Kennedy speaking at Rice University about America’s need to go to the moon. In a 1961 address to congress, Kennedy had called for the United States to support sending an American safely to the moon before the end of the decade — a push prompted by a Cold War desire to overtake the Soviet Union in the “space race.”
JFK, 1962, on the moon mission: "For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace."https://t.co/ACnrJ0mYRl
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 31, 2018
As for Marco Rubio, he called “First Man’s” supposed U.S. flag omission “total lunacy.”
This is total lunacy. And a disservice at a time when our people need reminders of what we can achieve when we work together. The American people paid for that mission,on rockets built by Americans,with American technology & carrying American astronauts. It wasn’t a UN mission. https://t.co/eGwBq7hj8C
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 31, 2018
Armstrong died in 2012 at age 82. Following his death, President Barack Obama called him “the greatest of American heroes.” Obama said in a statement, “When Neil stepped foot on the surface of the moon for the first time, he delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten.”
For the most part, critics are raving about the film, earning it Oscar buzz, and an 84 percent critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
From critics’ accounts, it sounds like the film doesn’t focus on the national interests that drove the Apollo moon mission. It focuses instead on Armstrong’s personal story, as well as on the other astronauts and engineers who were “far more interested in scientific progress and in their own survival,” according to The Wrap’s Alonso Duralde.
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw praised the film for downgrading “the patriotic fervor of the landing,” specifically by omitting the scene of Armstrong and Aldrin planting the U.S. flag on the moon. The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney doesn’t address the flag issue specifically, but he lauded the film for its restraint and its “strikingly intelligent” treatment of “a defining moment for America.”
“What is perhaps most notable is the film’s refusal to engage in the expected jingoistic self-celebration that such a milestone would seem to demand,” Rooney wrote. “At a time when the toxic political climate has cheapened that kind of nationalistic fervor, turning it into empty rhetoric, the measured qualities of Josh Singer’s screenplay, based on James R. Hansen’s 2005 biography of Armstrong, are to be savored.”
But National Review critic Kyle Smith took issue with the fact that the movie doesn’t show the flag actually being planted. He also questioned Gosling’s assertion that not showing this moment is somehow more authentic to Armstrong’s experience.
“Got that? It’s more faithful to Neil Armstrong, who died in 2012, to leave out the thrilling moment when he placed the flag on the lunar surface,” Smith wrote. “This is daft. Congress discussed placing a U.N. flag on the moon instead but ultimately decided that an American project should be celebrated with an American symbol.”
From Smith’s writeup, it doesn’t sound like he had actually seen the movie. Rather, he was commenting about what other critics have written.
In any case, Smith concludes his piece with a quote from Armstrong — which could be read in many ways in this current U.S. flag controversy.
“My job was to get the flag there,” Armstrong said. “I was less concerned about whether that was the right artifact to place. I let other, wiser minds than mine make those kinds of decisions.”
This story has been updated to include the statement by Neil Armstrong’s sons on the controversy surrounding “First Man.”
