Armstrong

Despite coming after Damien Chazelle's First Man and Todd Douglas Miller's Apollo 11, David Fairhead's profile of Neil Armstrong offers thoughtful insights into the life and personality of the first human to set foot on the lunar surface. An Ohio farm boy who became obsessed with flight after receiving a model aeroplane, Armstrong proved he had the right stuff long before he joined Nasa by flying combat missions in the Korean War and testing rocket-powered X-15s. But it was his handling of a spinning capsule emergency during Gemini 8's flight in 1965 that persuaded Mission Control that Armstrong had the temperament and skills to command Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins in the Apollo 11 Moon shot in July 1969. While the attention naturally falls on Armstrong's professional achievements, ex-wife Janet and sons Mark and Eric reflect on his home life, which seemingly never recovered from the death of his beloved daughter, Karen. Aldrin is notable by his absence, but Fairhead makes solid use of the archive material to capture Armstrong's courage, composure and humility.