Rent Armstrong (2019)

Interesting but not insightful - Armstrong review by Other Worlds

It can't be easy making a documentary about a man as emotionally controlled and as taciturn as Neil Armstrong but David Fairhead makes a creditable attempt.

A notable absence from the movie is Buzz Aldrin , the only actual witness to the Armstrongs most famous moment and either he was not asked or chose not to involve himself ? Very odd and a real weakness in the documentary.

The film is mostly made up of interviews with people who knew him personally and professionaly; what film there is of Armstrong talking is composed entirely of non-candid moments speaking to the press etc.

The family movies are mildly intersting , not informative particularly ( they are silent ) and Harrison Ford reads from some of Armstrongs private writings , presumably made available by the family, and they helpful in providing some insight into the man. Insights that he never voiced to camera himself. I did wonder how open the family were at providing access to all his writings however. There is,if not a suggestion of hagiography , then definately a very selective history on display.

No reference at all , for example, is made of the allegation of medical malpractice made by the family against the hospital where Armstrong died .

In the end if you are interested in the man , then you would be better off i.m.o watching Damien Chazelle's movie 'First Man' a completely different genre , drama vs documentary ,but really I think you need the drama to give the guy a, fully deserved, 3rd dimension.

Nothing Really New Here - Armstrong review by CP Customer

Moderately interesting but there was little here that hadn't been covered in the two BBC documentaries on Armstrong - Christopher Riley's "Neil Armstrong - First Man on the Moon" and Andrew Smith's "Being Neil Armstrong".

For me, the most revealing contributions were Chris Kraft's observations on Buzz Aldrin. “I didn’t dislike Aldrin. Didn’t like him either."

Bio Documentary - Armstrong review by GI

Almost forgotten today but the first moon landing in 1969 was a major world event and it marked a feeling of a big change for the world, a change that sadly did not come to pass but if you remember being caught up in this historic event this documentary rekindles the feeling of hope that was rife at the time. As a documentary this has huge interest looking into the life of the first man on the moon and revealing a life tinged with tragedy and a workaholic sense of duty that cost him in his personal life. Admittedly this lacks the sheer spectacle of the 2019 documentary Apollo 11 but if you are interested in the Gemini & Apollo space missions this is worth checking out. It's a straight forward, no frills film that uses archive footage and interviews with family, friends and colleagues to tell the life story of Neil Armstrong, it's obviously dominated by the moon landing itself but it's in the private life that there is a human story worth checking out.