The First Wave

R

Released Nov 19, 2021

1 hr. 33 min.

Documentary

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List

97%

39 Reviews

Tomatometer

82%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

With exclusive access inside one of New York's hardest hit hospital systems during the terrifying first four months of the pandemic, Oscar®-nominated and Emmy® Award-winning director Matthew Heineman's THE FIRST WAVE spotlights the everyday heroes at the epicenter of COVID-19 as they come together to fight one of the greatest threats the world has ever encountered. Leaving a devastating trail of death and despair, this once-in-a-century pandemic changed the very fabric of our daily lives and exposed long-standing inequities in our society. Employing his signature approach of character-driven cinema vérité, Heineman embeds with a group of doctors, nurses and patients on the frontlines as they all desperately try to navigate the crisis. With each distinct storyline serving as a microcosm through which we can view the emotional and societal impacts of the pandemic, THE FIRST WAVE is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.

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Critics Consensus

The First Wave presents a starkly gripping snapshot of a crisis unfolding -- and its grim toll on those who put their lives on the line to fight it.

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Audience Member

This is a under-appreciated and well acted story about the personal decisions the first Mars mission crew of 5 diverse individuals has to make before committing to a 2.5 year voyage to Mars and back. I would have loved to see a second season.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/21/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Nat Geo continues to dominate the doc game with a difficult, highly emotional, and even uplifting, view of the first four months of the pandemic in NYC. I appreciated the approach, following both specific doctors and patients, allowing the audience to experience a taste of the emotional toll the ups and downs faced while battling this totally unknown virus took on all involved. I assumed this wouldn't be an easy watch but found myself tearing up multiple times, for a number of different reasons both negative and positive, and would find it hard to come out of watching this unaffected.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Seriously spot on, from an ICU nurse perspective. I felt everything that they said, did, and felt!!! 2020 was crazy year, that nobody will forget. It was great how they tired everything together from covid to George Floyd. Then leaving off to the second covid spike.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

dave d

Be careful which politician you use as the through line of your documentary! Hearing Andrew Cuomo was unfortunate, but it is more important to see and acknowledge the first doctors and nurses to battle Covid-19. It's no wonder nurses are quitting at record rates! The doc follows several patients and front-line hospital workers as they cope mentally and physically with the first stages of the pandemic. It's harrowing and sometime impossible to watch, but if you're curious why so many people are scared nearly two years later, this is a fantastic film to illustrate that! Final Score: 7.7/10

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

renaldo d

Director managed to bring touching stories and show the fast pace of the routine of essential service workers. Great documentary.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This didn't look natural at all. No disrespect to the efforts of the frontline workers, but if I knew nothing about this pandemic, I'd not take this as documentary. This looked scripted and many of the depicted events were quite clearly captured with professional video equipment. Who goes with full camera setup in a hospital overrun by sick people to shoot scenes whose value wouldn't have been known at the time? And those hospital scenes with 10 doctors and nurses attending to a single patient with half of them virtually doing nothing but just standing there. Really? How realistic is this to happen in a hospital overwhelmed by pandemic? Sorry, but this looks like a piece of propaganda, to reignite fear and anxiety, coming out at opportune moment when people started to move on...

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

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Matthew Heineman

Director

Nathalie Dougé

Self

Matthew Heineman

Producer

Jenna Millman

Producer

Leslie Norville

Producer

Maiken Baird

Executive Producer

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The First Wave: Trailer 1

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Danny Leigh

Financial Times

This is war reportage. But unpacking the metaphor of battle, so casually thrown around in the past 21 months, is part of the film's value.

Rated: 4/5

Nov 25, 2021

Full Review

Randy Myers

San Jose Mercury News

[A] gripping, powerful documentary...

Nov 24, 2021

Full Review

Cath Clarke

Guardian

This remarkable film feels like it could become a time capsule, showing future generations what it felt like in 2020 for those on the frontline.

Rated: 4/5

Nov 23, 2021

Full Review

Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

It all makes for a piercing experience. One that I can see impacting generations with its clear-eyed perspective on that terrible first wave.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 16, 2022

Full Review

Zoë Rose Bryant

Next Best Picture

The First Wave is an unsettling but urgently necessary chronicle of the conditions in one of New York's hardest-hit hospital systems during the frustrating first four months of the pandemic, captured with unflinching candor.

Rated: 7/10

Jul 14, 2022

Full Review

Kelly-Anne Taylor

Radio Times

It all adds up to a tender, clear-eyed snapshot of a devastating moment in recent history.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 17, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

With exclusive access inside one of New York's hardest hit hospital systems during the terrifying first four months of the pandemic, Oscar®-nominated and Emmy® Award-winning director Matthew Heineman's THE FIRST WAVE spotlights the everyday heroes at the epicenter of COVID-19 as they come together to fight one of the greatest threats the world has ever encountered. Leaving a devastating trail of death and despair, this once-in-a-century pandemic changed the very fabric of our daily lives and exposed long-standing inequities in our society. Employing his signature approach of character-driven cinema vérité, Heineman embeds with a group of doctors, nurses and patients on the frontlines as they all desperately try to navigate the crisis. With each distinct storyline serving as a microcosm through which we can view the emotional and societal impacts of the pandemic, THE FIRST WAVE is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.

Director: Matthew Heineman
Executive Producer: Maiken Baird, Carolyn Bernstein, David Fialkow, Alex Gibney, Pagan Danielle Harleman, Ryan Harrington, Joedan Okun, Jeff Skoll, Leah Natasha Thomas, Diane Weyermann
Distributor: National Geographic Documentary Films
Production Co: National Geographic Documentary Films, Our Time Projects, Participant
Rating: R (Some Language)
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 19, 2021, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 20, 2022
Box Office (Gross USA): $60.5K

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