Armstrong Blu-Ray

Good version of man’s greatest achievement.

It’s a Hollywood produced documentary about Neil Armstrong’s career, and his involvement with the first Moon landing. The DVD has a lot of NA’s private film footage, and Harrison Ford reads documents written by Neil Armstrong. HF has a distinctive voice which is very different to NA’s. In my opinion this works well to indicate when NA’s written words are being used.Neil Armstrong was a very special person. It is clear from the documentary why he was chosen to command the first Moon landing flight, and be the first man to stand on a foreign “planet”.Regarding standing on the Moon, Neil Armstrong said:“To stand on the surface of the Moon and look at the Earth high overhead is certainly a unique experience. Although very beautiful, it is very remote, an oasis or an island, but it is the only island that we know of that is suitable for man. The importance of protecting and saving that home has never been felt more strongly. Protection is required however, not from foreign aggressors or natural calamity but from its own population.”Many years later later, Neil Armstrong said:“I just don’t deserve celebrity. I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.”When Neil Armstrong said that “protection is required however, not from foreign aggressors or natural calamity but from its own population”, he was referring to Russian aggression. And he was also looking ahead to the danger that my brother said to me recently in an email: “I can only conclude that humans are determined to bring about their own downfall, despite all of the recent warnings from nature.”During the film credits, there was a song with a beautiful female voice and very appropriate moving lyrics. I thought the song was very good, but I also thought it was the usual “Hollywood treatment”. However, at the end of the credits it said that the words and tune were written by Mark Armstrong who is one of Neil Armstrong’s two sons. And, it was sung by Neil Armstrong’s grand daughter Kali Armstrong (daughter of Mark), with some vocals by Mark. It was arranged by Stefan Stern, Kali Armstrong and Mark Armstrong.However, I have since read parts of the en.wikipedia entry for Neil Armstrong, and the part about his death says:“The New York Times reported on details of a medical malpractice suit Armstrong's family had filed against Mercy Health–Fairfield Hospital, where he died. When Armstrong appeared to be recovering from his bypass surgery, nurses removed the wires connected to his temporary pacemaker. He began to bleed internally and his blood pressure dropped. Doctors took him to the hospital's catheterization laboratory, and only later began operating. Two of the three physicians who reviewed the medical files during the lawsuit called this a serious error, saying surgery should have begun immediately; experts the Times talked to, while qualifying their judgement by noting that they were unable to review the specific records in the case, said that taking a patient in those circumstances to the operating room generally gave them the highest chance of survival.”“The family ultimately settled for $6 million in 2014. Letters included with the 93 pages of documents sent to the Times by an unknown individual show that his sons intimated to the hospital, through their lawyers, that they might discuss what happened to their father publicly at the 45th anniversary observances in 2014. The hospital, fearing the bad publicity that would result from being accused of negligently causing the death of a revered figure such as Armstrong, agreed to pay as long as the family never spoke about the suit or the settlement. Armstrong's wife, Carol, was not a party to the lawsuit. She reportedly felt that her husband would have been opposed to taking legal action.”Even though Neil Armstrong’s death appears to have been avoidable, the impression I have from the film is that he would indeed have been opposed to taking legal action. And, in my opinion, he would be very upset that some of his family have benefited from his death.I also found out by watching one of the “extra” brief videos on the DVD, that the director and producers were English. I only knew that because they had English accents. The director and producer names on the DVD case are so small that I had to use a magnifying glass to read them.

Great film, capturing an era where impossible dreams were made to come true. Incredible story of brave men, quiet geniuses coming together to achieve miracles

A fabulous historical documentary film about an amazing man with input from Neil’s two sons and his ex wife among others....I think Harrison Ford did a good job with the narration in Neil’s own words

Good history document of the first man in the moon and the team around him.

A very human documentary about a truly remarkable human being. I can't recommend this highly enough.

absolutely amazing man -brilliant account of his career -no big heads -just played it down -fantastic brain /mind -recomended -first man on the moon

A fitting tribute to the most famous yet unknown man.