The Right Stuff (1983) and Apollo 13 (1995)
These two movies are the most obvious non-documentary films to recommend after First Man, and as such I didn’t want to include them but then also realized I have to include them or face the scrutiny of all of you readers. At least they do have contextual relevance. The Right Stuff, dramatically chronicling the Mercury program, takes place mostly before First Man, while Apollo 13, which is about the problematic third mission to the Moon, is sort of like a sequel to First Man. There are some characters that overlap, including Gus Grissom (Fred Ward in The Right Stuff, Shea Whigham in First Man), Deke Slayton (Scott Paulin in The Right Stuff, Chris Ellis in Apollo 13, Kyle Chandler in First Man), and Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, Pablo Schreiber in First Man). Both movies, like First Man, also give plenty of attention to the astronauts’ wives.
The Dish (2000)
Neil Armstrong has been famous ever since his trip to the Moon, and he’s been the subject of many specials and documentary profiles and been portrayed in everything from a 1996 TV movie for The Family Channel about Apollo 11 to blockbusters like Men in Black 3. Sometimes it’s nice to give the well-known heroes a break and show what’s going on in the world around the main events. The recent film Hidden Figures, for instance, offers a look at the African-American women who worked in the background of the space missions, including Katherine Johnson, who performed calculations for Apollo 11. Ross McElwee and Michael Negroponte’s 1979 documentary Space Coast spotlights people living in Cape Canaveral post-Apollo program.
Then there’s The Dish, which is a somewhat comical drama about the participation by an Australian observatory in the transmission of images from the Apollo 11 mission to televisions around the world. Unlike a documentary or a biopic such as Hidden Figures, though, The Dish is populated by fictional characters in mostly fabricated or appropriated situations within a story based on real events. The movie has a terrific ensemble, including Sam Neill and Patrick Warburton, and despite its inaccuracies does well to represent the idea of lesser-known contributors to heroic acts and the idea of how global the Moon landing was as a leap for mankind.
The Last Man on the Moon (2014) and Mercury 13 (2018)
Two more recent documentaries that have less to do directly with the events of First Man do still make for nice pairings. The Last Man on the Moon explores the headspace of late astronaut Gene Cernan, who had the honor of being the 11th of 12 men on the Moon, as well as being the last person to step on the lunar surface. Yet he’s not a famous name. As I wrote in my review at Nonfics, “He wasn’t the first to touch the lunar surface, and he wasn’t part of the troubled or tragic missions that they make Hollywood movies about or continue to commemorate with memorials. He was just the last man ever to step foot on the Moon, a distinction that doesn’t carry much glamour. Maybe he’s a trivia answer, a footnote in textbooks at best.”
As for Netflix’s Mercury 13, this film co-directed by In the Shadow of the Moon helmer David Sington with Heather Walsh may seem at first like a documentary alternative to Hidden Figures, but it’s specifically about the 13 women who tested privately in hopes of becoming astronauts at the same time as the famed Mercury Seven. And many of them were just as if not more qualified following the same screening process. Perhaps if any of them had been permitted into NASA’s programs, Chazelle would have made a film titled First Woman instead. Maybe he still can one day, once a woman does finally walk on the Moon.
Bonus: From the Earth to the Moon (1998)
Appropriately, this list goes to 11, but this last item isn’t a movie and so I guess has to be separated from the rest. From the Earth to the Moon is a very comprehensive 12-episode miniseries originally broadcast on HBO. Produced by Apollo 13 director Ron Howard, his partner Brian Grazer, and their star Tom Hanks, the program chronicles everything you ever want to know about the Apollo missions with a blend of documentary and dramatization material, the latter starring the likes of Tony Goldwyn, Bryan Cranston, Cary Elwes, Steve Zahn, Chris Isaak, and Tim Daly as respective First Man characters Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, Elliot See, Ed White, and Jim Lovell. Hanks also appears in scenes reenacting the making of the first film on this list, A Trip to the Moon.
Bonus Bonus: The Planting of the American Flag on the Moon (1969)
For everyone upset that this wasn’t depicted in the movie:
Related Topics: First Man, Movie DNA
