The "last movie I saw" thread

[Commando]

Also realizing how flimsy that metal capsule is they were jetting around in space in. Balls of steel, all of them. Completely teetering on the edge of disaster depending on some scientist not messing up some equations on their NASA blackboards...

[Uncle Ted]

That's interesting, UT, and thanks for the link. During the descent, as they called out things like "1201 error!," my wife leaned over and said, "I wish I knew what was going on." "Me, too!" You're right the focus was just on Armstrong and much less on the play-by-play, but as you note it would have made for a more exciting experience to know better what was happening.

It was also interesting to see how clunky the switches and instrumentation were, along with the handwritten notes taped to their dashboards.

My wife did the same... leaning over and asking about the "1201" error. I think she thought since I work as a computer engineer that is something that I see all the time. Fortunately I had read about about it beforehand and simply told her, like an expert, "The LEM computer with its huge 2K of memory and 2 Mhz CPU is getting overloaded with data." She said, "Oh".

[PaloAltoCougar]

My wife did the same... leaning over and asking about the "1201" error. I think she thought since I work as a computer engineer that is something that I see all the time. Fortunately I had read about about it beforehand and simply told her, like an expert, "The LEM computer with its huge 2K of memory and 2 Mhz CPU is getting overloaded with data." She said, "Oh".

I would have loved to have been able to respond with that, even it meant an almost certain elbow to the ribs and an eyeroll.

[Uncle Ted]

I would have loved to have been able to respond with that, even it meant an almost certain elbow to the ribs and an eyeroll.

UT Dallas and NASA put together this website that has some of the Apollo 11 chat... Pretty cool. Here is part of the landing chat up until the first 1201 alarm:

https://app.exploreapollo.org/stories/story/2/moment/4

I read somewhere that Buzz Aldrin was freaking out to himself as he looked down as saw all the huge boulders they were flying over as they were landing.

Neil looked through his triangular window and studied the desolate, crater-pocked surface before him. He had made many simulated runs, pored over dozens of photographs taken by Apollo 10 marking the way, landmark by landmark, down to the Sea of Tranquility. He knew their intended landing site as well as he knew familiar airfields back home, and he immediately saw they weren't where they were supposed to be. Damn!


Eagle had overshot by four miles. A slight navigational error and a faster-than-intended descent speed accounted for their lunar module missing its planned touchdown spot. Neil studied the rugged surface rising toward him, and Buzz noted a crater wider than a football field. Eagle was running out of fuel and heading straight for a gaping lunar pit filled with boulders larger than Purdue jitneys.


Scientifically, it would be great to land next to and explore a crater gouged into lunar soil, but Neil quickly ascertained that the slope around it was too steep. If Eagle landed on a tilt, they could never launch back into orbit.


With not a second to waste, Neil realized he was on his own. This was where experience and training came into play, and he looked beyond the crater. He gripped Eagle’s maneuvering handle and translator with a touch honed by years of flying the smallest and the largest, the slowest and the fastest. Neil knew the "thin edge" well — hell, he'd written the manual, and he had to fly as he'd never flown before.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/spac...y-moon-n160386

Armstrong should have aborted the landing but being one of the best (if not the best) Apollo astronaut saved the mission (and maybe the Apollo program).

[RC Vikings]

We went to "Free Solo" this past weekend, the climb of Alex Honnald up El Capitan. This was one of the most enjoyable things I've seen in a theater in a long time. The film looks at his life growing up and his life outside of climbing, very unique and really emotionally dead person but I think you'd almost have to be to take the risk that he does. The climb itself takes up very little of the movie but it's very nerve racking even knowing that he makes it. The preparation for the climb was really interesting, 31 pitches and thousands of moves were rehearsed and thought through in order to make it. I think it's probably the greatest athletic achievement in my lifetime.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I’ve been engrossed by the U.S. space program since making my own space capsule after Alan Shepard’s initial flight in 1961 (I was eight, so give me a break). I’ve enjoyed The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, Hidden Figures and other movies about the program in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, and First Man is as good or better than those, but it’s something very different. Some will find it very slow at times, as it examines Neal Armstrong’s motivations and psyche, and sometimes director Damon Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land) gets a bit ponderous. But the action sequences are expertly done and very harrowing, with death seeming a near certainty multiple times. It instills a new appreciation for what our space pioneers were able to achieve.

It’s also interesting to do a compare and contrast with the ‘60s and now. For example, Armstrong’s humility, shyness and reserve vs. today’s social media usage in which one makes public announcements about the most trivial of deeds. And it’s interesting that following First Man’s premiere, several commentators ripped on the movie for not showing Armstrong and Aldrin planting the U.S. flag on the moon (although one can see the flag in the background). Such criticism exemplifies the current fixation on superficialities when it comes to patriotism, and yet the depiction of JFK’s stirring call to go to the moon, and the countless untrumpeted sacrifices made by so many great Americans to get there, make First Man among the most patriotic of movies.

Saw this over the weekend on IMAX. I am a NASA geek, so I enjoyed it overall but but the way it was filmed kind of ruined it for me. The shaky cam/constant closeup/out-of-focus shots were too much. I hate that gimmick.

[Uncle Ted]

Saw this over the weekend on IMAX. I am a NASA geek, so I enjoyed it overall but but the way it was filmed kind of ruined it for me. The shaky cam/constant closeup/out-of-focus shots were too much. I hate that gimmick.

The other thing I noticed is it seems they went to extremes to make all the equipment look old and crusty. For example before they even open the LEM they show a shot of the dials and switches and they seem to be covered in dust and dirt. It seems they got their props from the Johnson space center dumpster.

[Katy Lied]

Well we did get to the moon on the equivalent of an adding machine. M+ and M- baby.

I realize that it is quite the fashion to do dark movies that don't celebrate any concrete events as much as they do the inner angst of the protagonist. (This based on the KSL review). If he hadn't planted the flag, would we be watching this movie?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Well we did get to the moon on the equivalent of an adding machine. M+ and M- baby.

I realize that it is quite the fashion to do dark movies that don't celebrate any concrete events as much as they do the inner angst of the protagonist. (This based on the KSL review). If he hadn't planted the flag, would we be watching this movie?

After seeing the movie, I can say definitively that the whole flag-planting controversy was stupid. Beating the Russians in the space race and making huge sacrifices along the way was a central theme of the storyline.

[Jeff Lebowski]

The other thing I noticed is it seems they went to extremes to make all the equipment look old and crusty. For example before they even open the LEM they show a shot of the dials and switches and they seem to be covered in dust and dirt. It seems they got their props from the Johnson space center dumpster.

Yeah, that was weird.

Another thing that bugged me was the shakiness and noise as they were descending to land on the moon. gtfo. The moon has no atmosphere. We have video and audio of the landing and it was nothing like what was portrayed in the movie.

Also thought it was unfortunate how they made Buzz Aldrin out to be a weenie. Unfair and unnecessary.

[frank ryan]

I saw Halloween. It was a lot of fun. Slashers are not my deal it’s an easy recommend for horror fans.

[beefytee]

Saw First Man over the weekend and hated it. Like all the geeks here I love the Apollos/Gemini stories, but this movie did not do them justice. Gosling was horrible, especially his attempts to have a timid voice. The overly dramatic pauses, the camera shaking even when just following people walking down the street, and an overall storyline that was just poorly put together. I don't disagree with PAC too often, but I much preferred Hidden Figures and Apollo 13 to this movie.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Saw First Man over the weekend and hated it. Like all the geeks here I love the Apollos/Gemini stories, but this movie did not do them justice. Gosling was horrible, especially his attempts to have a timid voice. The overly dramatic pauses, the camera shaking even when just following people walking down the street, and an overall storyline that was just poorly put together. I don't disagree with PAC too often, but I much preferred Hidden Figures and Apollo 13 to this movie.

Mrs. PAC strongly agrees with you and the Dude.

[Uncle Ted]

Saw First Man over the weekend and hated it. Like all the geeks here I love the Apollos/Gemini stories, but this movie did not do them justice. Gosling was horrible, especially his attempts to have a timid voice. The overly dramatic pauses, the camera shaking even when just following people walking down the street, and an overall storyline that was just poorly put together. I don't disagree with PAC too often, but I much preferred Hidden Figures and Apollo 13 to this movie.

Yeah, from a NASA nerd perspective First Man sucked. I agree that Hidden Figures and Apollo 13 are much better. They missed the mark telling the full Apollo 11 story (e.g., being off by miles of the landing site, how close they were to running out of fuel, the broken switch, the lunar boulder field, explanation of the 1201/1202 errors which made the guidance computer reboot continuously and effectively worthless which forced Armstrong to make the landing completely manually, etc.) The movie seemed to be more of an attempt of trying to explain why Neil Armstrong was the way he was. Yes, Armstrong lost his daughter but maybe they should have also mentioned that he was shot down and almost killed in the Korean war as a Navy pilot. Or that he first marriage wasn't all that solid (he later ended up getting divorced). In short, there are a lot of factors that could have contributed to the way his was. The movie seemed to try to focus primarily on his daughter and as the only contributing factor. In any case, Armstrong saved two NASA missions from disaster but the movie really doesn't tell that story.

[Non Sequitur]

I saw Halloween. It was a lot of fun. Slashers are not my deal it’s an easy recommend for horror fans.

Halloween is the only slasher movie I have ever enjoyed. To this day the Halloween theme music is my ex-wife's ring tone.