Apollo 13 – 1995
This was an excellent movie with a wonderful cast. Tom Hanks was at the top of his game in the 1990s and could pretty much do no wrong. But we were also given great performances by Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, and Kathleen Quinlan. Directed by the ever popular Ron Howard, Apollo 13 gave us the ill-fated story of the infamous third attempt at an American moon landing.
The movie is set in 1970. Hanks played James Lovell, Paxton played the part of Fred Haise, and Bacon played Swigert. These were the three astronauts who very nearly died during the mission. Sinise played Ken Mattingly, the pilot who, at the last minute, was grounded because of the possibility that he might have the measles. Harris played the Team Flight Director Gene Kranz. And finally, Quinlan played Mary Lovell, James’s wife. Other notable actors, Clint Howard and Loren Dean, played important supporting roles.
This was a gripping drama. It was exciting to watch, even though we all know the story and the outcome. Ron Howard treated it like a docudrama, staying as true to history as possible. There were very few deviations from actual events. In fact, he even kept nearly all of the actual dialogue between the astronauts and the men at Mission Control verbatim.
That’s not to say there weren’t any differences. For example, in the movie, the explosion that started all the problems with the mission occurs only a few seconds after Swigert follows his instructions to stir the oxygen tanks. In reality, there was a 98 second lag-time. Another discrepancy is that in the film, Haise argues with Swigert about who is to blame for the explosion. In reality, the two didn’t argue at all, but they threw it in to add a little drama. But I think we can all agree that minor differences like these can be easily overlooked.
But the obscure details that they got right were actually pretty amazing. I found two such examples, both of which concerned Mary Lovell. The first was the little scene in which she dropped her wedding ring into the shower drain, though, in reality the ring was caught by the drain trap as opposed to the more dramatic way it was lost down the drain in the movie. The second was the dream Mary had in which her husband was sucked out of the spacecraft to be lost in outer space. Just as an interesting note, Lovell has stated that her dream was probably prompted by their viewing of a 1969 movie called Marooned, starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crena, and Gene Hackman, which they had seen 3 months prior to the launch of Apollo 13.
The story itself was amazing on two levels. First was the exciting story of survival experienced by the astronauts. The second was the equally thrilling story of the ground crew as they worked tirelessly to save them. Hanks, Paxton, and Bacon all had to be in top physical shape as they had to act many of their scenes in zero gravity conditions. They apparently did this using a NASA KC-135 reduced gravity aircraft. No wires or harnesses were used during filming. That’s pretty amazing!
And the dramatic tension achieved in the Mission Control sequences was just as exciting to watch. Again, we knew the outcome because it was already history, but to watch the various ways in which the men at NASA identified and solved impossible problems was incredibly fascinating. Harris gave us a particularly great performance as Gene Kranz. He was also the man who gave us one of the film’s 2 big quotes that have gone into the pantheon of the most memorable movie quotes ever. “Failure is not an option!” The other, of course was delivered by Hanks as he said, “Houston, we have a problem.” These movie tag lines were only altered slightly from the actual dialogue transcripts from the event.
While all the actors in the movie did a great job, I have to give special props to Bill Paxton. His character had the distinction of being sick with a urinary tract infection and a subsequent kidney infection during the flight, causing him to be in pain for most of the aborted mission. Paxton was very memorable in his performance. I also thought Sinise was very good as he portrayed the anger and incredulity of the astronaut being told he was being grounded because of a danger that may or may not exist. And I’d also like to give a quick shout out to Jean Speegle Howard, playing the part of Blanche, Lowell’s aged mother who never once doubted her son’s ability to make it back home alive. Like I said, the entire cast did a wonderful job.
This was an incredible film because of its spot-on realism. Attention was paid to every detail from the flight suits to the authentic set design of the spacecraft and the Mission Control Center. An actual NASA employee who was a consultant said that the set was so realistic that when he would leave at the end of the day, he would look for the elevator before remembering that he was not really in Mission Control. Apollo 13 was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, taking home 2, but not for what you’d expect. One was for Best Film Editing and the other was for Best Sound. I thought one would be for Best Director, but Howard wasn’t nominated.