OPINION:
A biographical film about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk the moon — and an American, mind you — will notably, face-slappingly, leave out the triumphant moment the U.S. flag was planted on lunar soil.
The left and their hatred of historical monuments — they just can’t keep from tearing them down, can they.
This flag-plant wasn’t just an iconic moment in U.S. history. This was a day when the achievements of American greatness were on full display for all the world to see and acknowledge.
And now a movie about this Apollo 11 mission is going to whitewash that patriotic time in the golden sun?
Ryan Gosling, the Hollywood star who portrays Armstrong defended the omission of the flag-planting moment by Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — yet another American — to the Telegraph this way: The achievement “transcended countries and borders,” he said, “and that’s how we chose to view it.”
Right. Let’s remember: Gosling’s a Canadian. Of course he’d like to spread America’s achievements north a bit.
But historically speaking, taking out the U.S. flag from the very scene that blasts “American Exceptionalism” at a time of Cold War racing against the evil Soviets is not only a snub to those tied to this great patriotic moment in time — but it’s almost a gift to today’s Russia. It sends the message that this country has so far moved past the U.S.-U.S.S.R. days of frigid relations, foreign subterfuge and spy-versus-spy-type behaviors that today’s America is willing to go the extra mile and drop that whole silly pride-in-nation thing.
It says that today’s America is willing to share our glory to the point of becoming inglorious ourselves.
But really, as any MAGA hat-wearing good ol’ American will tell you, we’re not. And that’s what makes “First Man,” and Gosling’s defense of the flag omission, such a travesty. It pretends pride and spirit don’t matter.
It draws equivalencies where equivalencies didn’t, and don’t, exist — and actually goes out of its way to try to draw these equivalencies.
America isn’t just a piece of property to populate. America is a light on the hill, a shiny ideal of what could be when freedom is allowed to reign, and when individuals count more than collectives, and when men and women inspired by something deep within are allowed to create — and when the very seeds planted by God are allowed to grow from imagination to passion to productivity.
It’s that America that brought us to the point of sending the first man to walk the moon.
It’s that America that Aldrin and Armstrong stood tall for when they planted the U.S. flag.
A movie that dismisses that simple truth is not a movie worth watching.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.