As I was walking out of the theater, I became more and more upset. In the weeks leading up to the film's release there had been a great deal of criticism lobbed against the filmmakers for not including a scene of Armstrong planting the American flag on the moon. Our nationalist President, Senator Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Chuck Yeager and even Buzz Aldrin said this film was not patriotic enough.
What utter nonsense! The American flag is featured prominently throughout the film. There's a scene of the flag being hoisted. The American flag is shown on the astronaut's uniforms. The American flag is actually shown next to the lunar module on the moon in several shots. The words "United States" was featured as rockets launched. There were real interviews shown from around the world of people expressing their admiration of the United States. My wife said this was one of the most patriotic films she had seen in a long time.
It became clear that none of these "patriotic" critics had actually seen the film before making their ridiculous statements. This was an obvious pandering to a political base. It was disingenuous and cynical. Absolutely and blatantly untruthful.
I can understand Buzz Aldrin's unhappiness with the film. Although the overall impression of Aldrin in the film is positive it does show (based on Neil Armstrong's and other's accounts) of how Aldrin could be difficult to work with on occasion. Aldrin has a flamboyant personality, we all saw that a few years ago when he appeared on Dancing With The Stars. The movie showed just a hint of that and I would not have been happy to have been portrayed that way either.
Yeager is just being manipulated. He hadn't even seen the movie when he gave his interview. He fell for the deceit of the President and Senators Rubio and Cruz.
This is a very well done movie. It really shows the great efforts of engineers, pilots, and NASA administrators to do the impossible. It's apolitical. There's nary a hint of political agenda in this film. I'm sad to think some won't give this movie a chance because they buy into political propaganda.
