Fly me to the moon

Thursday, July 25, 2024

Does the picture of the day have to match what I write about? Of course not, because I am in charge and that is the way it is sometime. I did have a marvelous time hanging out by the pool with my friends today. When the boys said they were hungry, I had absolutely nothing in the house because we haven’t really grocery shopped since we got home. I volunteered popcorn, and they ate it all. Nothing better than a snack and then more swimming.

We had a change of ticket plans because our companions couldn’t go tonight, so we went to a movie instead. We saw Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra did not sing to me, which was decidedly unexpected). I liked it a lot. I was nostalgic for the late 60s! At least I was alive then – although I highly doubt that I can remember anything from then. I am so often nostalgic for the 1950s, a time in which I was not yet born. I always think that is so strange. I always figure I watched a lot of movies or tv from the 50s, but I don’t know.

The movie is about NASA leading up to the moon launch in July of ’69. Scarlett Johanssen is a marketing phenom and Channing Tatum is the launch commander. They get along and they don’t get along. It is very pleasant. There are two engineers – explained to be some of the finest engineers in the program – who help out with this and that – provide a bit of comic relief and get some stuff done. The fact that one of them is black made me wonder. Were there highly respected, front-line engineers working in the important rooms at NASA at that time (I realize Katherine Johnson was black and tremendously important, but I only learned that about 50 years after the fact when someone thought to make a movie about her), or is this 2024 color blind casting? I want black actors to work! I have no difficulty believing that a black person was totally capable of being there. But were they allowed to be there, and if they weren’t, should we teach (through watching a movie) people that they were there? This movie is made up!! (I assume) It’s a rom com with a NASA background instead of a flower store or a snowy Christmas hamlet, but people will believe the backdrop. I wonder all the time if young people who are not familiar with history are seeing our current day productions and learning that black people were all over, doing all the things, during the past. It’s hard to tell them later that we haven’t been very kind to black people, and they were not given many opportunities. But black actors in 2024 should work! I am not condemning the casting, but I wonder. I don’t have an answer. I am conflicted about even having an opinion. No, I think the actors working now is better than historical accuracy. But it is still rolling around in my mind.

So many things roll around in my mind.