#1 Planting the American Flag- First Man controversy
Posted: Mon, 03 Sep 18, 17:41 pm
A lot of attention is being attracted by people across the United States in regards to the director's decision not to show the planting of the United States flag on the moon.
Just showing the flag, in my opinion relegates it to the level of mere product placement. The director should give more than a mere nod to this country, it's achievements and it's freedoms. I don't think that anyone would believe that a USSR first landing film would have anything less than prominent placement of all Soviet symbols.
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“In ‘First Man’ I show the American flag standing on the lunar surface, but the flag being physically planted into the surface is one of several moments of the Apollo 11 lunar EVA that I chose not to focus upon,” Chazelle said.
“To address the question of whether this was a political statement, the answer is no. My goal with this movie was to share with audiences the unseen, unknown aspects of America’s mission to the moon–particularly Neil Armstrong’s personal saga and what he may have been thinking and feeling during those famous few hours,” Chazelle added.
While the statement about transcending countries and borders is true, (Buzz Aldrin talks about touring other countries after returning and seeing signs "We made it") It doesn't mean we can omit the branding that is due the U.S. I wonder what the director Damien Chazelle would think of us removing the his branding of the movie (remove his production credits). Or maybe more significant, how the movie studio would feel of us deleting Universal's opening?When First Man star Ryan Gosling, who is Canadian, was asked about it, he said that the moon landing, an American achievement, “transcended countries and borders.”
Gosling also called the moon landing a “human achievement” instead of just an American achievement but said that because he was Canadian, he may be suffering from “cognitive bias.”
Just showing the flag, in my opinion relegates it to the level of mere product placement. The director should give more than a mere nod to this country, it's achievements and it's freedoms. I don't think that anyone would believe that a USSR first landing film would have anything less than prominent placement of all Soviet symbols.
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