Weeks before it opened this weekend, "First Man" became embroiled in one of those stupid controversies that are now our economy's chief product. The movie, in telling the story of Neil Armstrong, does not show him planting the U.S. flag on the moon. Ryan Gosling, who plays Armstrong, only heightened the criticism of this omission by saying that the moon landing was "widely regarded not as an American, but as a human achievement."
We see the flag on the moon (and we see many U.S. flags on earth) in the movie. The reason it does not show the flag being planted is that it would be a distraction from the story the movie wants to tell.