First Man into Space (1959)
This post is part of my ongoing project to watch my science fiction blindspots. You can find my list of upcoming movies for this project here.
I had to keep fighting the urge to check the clock while watching First Man into Space. I know this is probably an unfair attitude to have toward a 77-minute movie, especially because the parts with which I was most impatient were the parts that the movie’s original audience would likely have appreciated most: the pilot, checking altitude with the control team on the ground; the debriefings after each test flight; the groundwork laid to make the idea of launching a man beyond the atmosphere plausible. In the heat of the early days of the Space Race, I can see why these pieces might have been interesting—Gagarin hadn’t made it out there yet, and the moon landing was still a full decade away.
My discomfort with these pieces weren’t simply about the time spent with them, though. It was the way in which they were presented: the loving close-ups of metal and fire, the focus on the military as a romantic occupation without grasping even the basics of military life. It wasn’t just the family members working in the same chain of command, either; it was simple things, like characters in uniform wearing their covers indoors. The Navy, and by extension, the brand new Air Force, are romanticized without questioning their place in the world of the movie. I wanted a less credulous view, one that got at why the sailors, soldiers, and scientists at the heart of the film do what they do, beyond unspoken love of country and professed love of scientific achievement. There were glimpses of passion in the pilot’s decision to ignore orders and push his plane beyond the bounds of earth’s atmosphere, but the rest of the movie is flat and rote, nationalism on screen with no sense of self-awareness. This presentation made me question the presence of the post-WWII German scientist on base, and it made me realize just how much like propaganda this movie was. Maybe it was exciting seventy years ago, but now? It left a sour taste in my mouth.
