The Aeronauts

Much is made of the lie that the ballon pilot was female. I was unaware of the true story when we began watching the film, so it wasn't the reason we stopped watching very early into the movie. The film was set in 1862. In one of the earliest scenes, Wren is shown garbed in a short, circus like costume, and sitting on a curb with her legs splayed. I can't think of any possible historical parallel for such a depiction outside of perhaps a bordello. Then came the histrionics and tumbling at the balloon launch scene. Click, movie off. I did appreciate the rather early notice in the film that it was mainly an exercise in Wokeiness propaganda. Hence a one star rating.

I can't stand the bashing of this movie by some snowflakey viewers with an agenda, hiding behind the self righteousness of denouncing what they see as feminist left revisionism of history, as if we all but relied on movies to learn about history. If you want to know what really happened I have a suggestion: open a history book. This is a work of fiction, and should be taken as fictitiously as, let's say, "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter". Yet for some reason a certain category of viewers, vociferous and roaming at the mouth for historical veracity are instead being intolerant of artistic freedom, showing their true colors for what they are: mad, ridiculously perceiving yet another imaginary cultural loss for the white male's impact on history. This movie wasn't bad. It was entertaining with great costumes and tension, and it should be seen for what it is: pure entertainment.

I watched this on Amazon Prime streaming. While it was inspired by a real person, James Glaisher who set the early groundwork for understanding and predicting weather, the story told here is a highly fictionalized account of his 1862 ascent by balloon to perhaps 36,000 feet. Felicity Jones as the fictional pilot and Eddie Redmayne as James Glaisher are both good. Being a scientist myself I was a bit put off by such things as climbing the exterior of the balloon at above 30,000 feet where the air temperature would be somewhere between -50 and -65F, and without gloves! What is depicted here is fantasy. But what about the good? The production values are high and the action interesting. Plus how many have even heard of Glaisher and his pioneering meteorological studies at a time when other British scientists laughed at him? He was a very important scientist in the history of weather forecasting and contributed to changing the world. So yeah, it has lots of things it can be legitimately criticized for but still it is an entertaining movie if you are in the right mood. I mostly enjoyed it.

First of all, history was rewritten to make sure a strong female character saves the day, while the male character is out cold like a helpless child. Secondly, let's talk about some facts. In reality, the altitude would make it extremely difficult (if not impossible) to breathe. Also, at 35,000 feet, the temperature would be around -60°F. The whole movie was just absurd, but as long as frustrated females around the world are able to stand up and shout "GIRL POWER!" then it was an hour and 41 minutes well spent.