Arguably the most famous astronaut of all-time, Neil Armstrong remains a subject of fascination. For another look at his life, we go to a 2019 documentary simply titled Armstrong.

Expect the usual format, as the movie mixes archival footage with modern interviews. In the latter domain, we hear from sons Mark and Rick Armstrong, first wife Janet Armstrong, US Navy Fighter Squadron VF-51 Commanding Officer Ernie Beauchamp, friend Charlie Mechem, sister June Hoffman, US Navy Fighter Squadron VF-51 fighter pilot Tom Hayward, X-15 pilot/astronaut Joe Engle, astronauts Mike Collins, Frank Borman, Charlie Duke and Dave Scott, NASA Flight Operations Officer Christopher Kraft, and NASA Flight Director Gerry Griffin.

We also find archival comments from Neil Armstrong as well as his father Stephen, astronaut Ed White and author Norman Mailer. Much of the narration from Harrison Ford also conveys quotes from Neil Armstrong.

The program covers the standard territory. This means we go through Neil Armstrong’s early days, his interest in aviation, his military career, his move to NASA, his space flights, and other elements of his life.

Armstrong comes with two particular strengths. It offers a nice collection of old film footage – including plenty of Armstrong home movies – as well as access to interviews with Neil’s surviving family and colleagues.

Neil himself died in 2012, and given his famous reluctance to talk about his life/career, I doubt he would’ve participated with this film anyway. Of course, a documentary with his perspective would seem ideal, but that likely wouldn’t have been in the cards even if Neil survived until this one’s production.

The roster of subjects seems more than ample to compensate, though bizarrely, only one of Armstrong’s two Apollo 11 colleagues appears here. While we hear from Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin remains nowhere to be found.

Perhaps the filmmakers approached Aldrin and he declined to participate. Whatever the case, his absence stands out given his importance to the story of the first moon landing.

Even without Aldrin, however, Armstrong works well. While it never attempts to rework the standard documentary format, it conveys its narrative in a compelling manner.

Again, the combination of ample archival footage along with so many valuable interview subjects becomes the key to the film’s success. Not only do we see ample shots of the historical events, but we get a solid roster of those who knew Neil well.

As noted, Aldrin’s absence seems glaring, and clearly Neil’s second wife Carol could’ve added perspective about his later years. Nonetheless, even without them, we get plenty of worthwhile insights.

All of this adds up to a solid little documentary. Despite its relatively brief 100-minute running time, it delivers a concise history of a noteworthy man.

Armstrong appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Archival material went windowboxed 1.33:1 as well.

As always, I viewed that older footage with different expectations than the modern film. Inevitably, those clips came with a mix of flaws, but I expected those.

As for the new shots, overall sharpness looked fine, as the majority of the movie felt accurate and concise. Most of the film focused on “talking head” elements, though some wider “establishing” bits appeared as well.

I noticed no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects. Edge haloes and source flaws never materialized from the modern elements.

In terms of colors, Armstrong went with a natural palette. The hues felt well-reproduced.

Blacks seemed deep and dense, while low-light shots offered nice smoothness and clarity. For the most part, the image satisfied.

I didn’t expect fireworks from the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, but it opened up well at times. Though dialogue dominated the soundscape, it used effects in a satisfying manner as well.

This meant scenes with jets or spacecraft blasted around the room in a vivid manner. While these didn’t crop up a ton of the time, they appeared frequently enough to give the soundscape kick.

Audio quality seemed appealing, with speech that came across as natural and concise. Music showed nice range and clarity.

Effects added fine punch and range. This turned into a better than expected mix for a documentary.

When we head to extras, we get 10 Deleted Scenes (16:43) as well as four Additional Scenes (5:18).

What makes “deleted” different than “additional”? I have no idea, as both seem to serve the same purpose, though perhaps “deleted” includes shots considered for the final film but cut whereas “additional” connotes material the filmmakers never intended to use.

In any case, across these 14 clips, we learn more of Armstrong's early interest in aviation and his and work as well as aviation-related topics, and more about Apollo 11. These prove useful, if not essential.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we conclude with two reels under Behind the Scenes: “Gemini 8 Capsule” (3:38) and “Flight of Fancy” (4:57). The first looks at the crew’s visit to that spacecraft while “Flight” examines the creation of a song written for the movie. Both seem decent but not memorable.

Expect a pretty solid look at the life of the first man on the Moon via Armstrong. Though not a perfect documentary, it work well as a whole and gives us a solid overview of its subject matter. The Blu-ray boasts positive picture and audio along with a few bonus materials. This turns into an enjoyable view of a famous astronaut.