Monday, April 28, 2014

Apollo 13

Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.

It’s not something that comes up here that often, but I’m a complete space nerd. About a third of the reading I do for pleasure is space science—cosmology, the creation of the solar system, the history of the space program and the like. It’s one of the greatest accomplishments of humankind, and I can’t get enough of it. That creates a problem for me with a film like Apollo 13; I know what’s going to happen here. I’ve read the accounts and I know the history. I know who guys like Deke Slayton and Gene Kranz are without being introduced to them in the film. That being the case, there aren’t a ton of surprises for me here. Of course, that’s also true because I’ve seen this before, but it was true the first time I watched.

What that means in real terms for me as a viewer is that it had better be a damn good film for me to have a good opinion of it. Fortunately, it is. Just as critically, Apollo 13 is accurate except for minor details made for narrative purposes. The main events, and even the things that seem like cinematic foreshadowing are things that actually happened in the real mission. I always appreciate historical accuracy.

The Apollo 13 mission was, to coin a phrase, doomed from the start. Mission commander Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) was originally scheduled to be the commander of Apollo 14, but he and his crew were bumped up in the rotation. Lovell, who was in Apollo 8, would get his chance to walk on the moon with Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) while Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinese) stayed in the command module. Two days before launch, Mattingly was scrubbed from the mission by the flight surgeon for coming into contact with someone carrying the measles virus. He was replaced by Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon), his mission backup.

Now, I’m going to assume for the next paragraph or two that you are unaware of history, but it’s safe to suggest that if the Apollo 13 mission had gone according to plan that there wouldn’t be a need for a film. As it happens, unlucky 13 was exactly that—a mechanical malfunction that occurred en route to the moon forced a mission scrub. The problem was severe enough that constant problems cropped up, requiring new procedures created on the fly not to save the mission but to save the men onboard and get them home.

That’s it, and that’s more than enough. It’s a hell of a story, the kind of thing that legends are made of, and all the better because it actually happened. If anyone had any doubt about it, Apollo 13 demonstrates that anyone and everyone who ever went up in space from any country has trouble pulling on his or her pants, because they’ve got balls the size of tractor tires.

In addition to the four actors mentioned above, there are some other really noteworthy performances here. Ed Harris, as Gene Kranz, is a solid rock at the center of the story. I think this is my favorite of his many great performances. He’s an island of calm when things are going to hell, which makes those moments where he does show a great deal of emotion that much more powerful. Similarly, Kathleen Quinlan, as Lovell’s wife Marilyn offers up a wonderful performance as someone desperate to maintain an aura of confidence when all she really wants to do is break down. In many ways, she becomes the emotional center of the film, since the men on Apollo 13 and the men in mission control are almost required to keep their emotions in check. It’s her that allows us as the audience to empathize at all.

I can’t really be objective about Apollo 13. Like I said at the top, I’m a geek for space stuff, and this is one of the most compelling stories about the American space program. It’s the sort of story that makes one not proud to be an American, but proud to be a human being, to grasp the size and scope of things that can be attempted and achieved. It’s an inspiring tale made all the better because it happened in real life.

The film ends with a short voiceover by Tom Hanks as Lovell, giving us a little information about what happened with the members of the crew and some of the mission control folks. He ends with the question of when we will be going back to the moon, a question that, almost 20 years after the release of this film, has not been answered. Solar radiation has turned the American flags on the moon’s surface white in the 45 years since the first landing, changing those flags into symbols of surrender.

Look, space stuff is cool. Space exploration, even if it didn’t boost the economy, give us massive amounts of scientific knowledge, and tell us more and more about the universe we live in, would be worth doing for the same reason people climb Everest. Because it’s there, and because doing it is cool. Near the end of the film, Gene Kranz, overhearing the NASA director commenting that this could be their worst disaster, replies that instead it will be their finest hour. He was right

Why to watch Apollo 13: Because it’s a hell of a story.
Why not to watch: If you know your history, you know where it’s going.

13 comments:

  1. Loved this movie, and admired Ron Howard's directorial decision to let Mother Nature, with all her pre-packaged laws of physics, do all the special-effects work for him by filming most of the zero-gee scenes in 20-second bites inside a parabola jet. That's an amazing accomplishment, and it makes me curious as to what Alfonso Cuarón did to simulate zero gee in "Gravity," another movie about an astronaut just trying to get back home.

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    1. You should watch the hours of special features on Gravity. It's freakin' fascinating.

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    2. I agree on the special features on Gravity.

      When Ron Howard is smart enough to stay out of the way of his story, he's an excellent director. I think this is one of his best. It's worth noting that after this, Tom Hanks produced the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon, which was an extended look at the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. If you can find it and you're half the space nerd I am, you'll pee yourself over it.

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  2. I haven't seen this in YEARS. Like, early teens at the least. But my parents have it on VHS, so I could easily go find it and pop it in.

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    1. I'd forgotten how well-made this is. It's worth seeing again.

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  3. Welcome to the club. I have always been a space nerd, did rocket science project in high school and was really annoyed that my university only opened its Mars lab after I graduated. One of my friends was at JPL when the 98 probes crashed. My son at 4 years is also a total sucker for space and rockets and his ipad is stuffed with rocket simulators. So no wonder I totally love this film. For me this is the ultimate space film because it is real, acurate and really well made. It is on the top of my list of film that should have but did not make the List. My favorite character is Gene Krantz. It is really crazy how much Ed Harris looks and acts like the real Krantz, but more so he, Krantz, is the person at the epicenter who does not shirk responsibility and is up to the task. He is the real hero of the film. Great review, Steve.

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    1. I agree with you on Kranz/Harris here. Harris is a good enough Mission Control voice that he has the same role in Gravity, but you're right about him being a hero in the film.

      One of the places the film trades off accuracy for cinematic narrative is in the character of Ken Mattingly. In the film, it's Ken who figures out the correct rebooting procedure for the command module so the men can get home. In reality, Mattingly was part of the team that did that--no less important, but far less single-handed.

      One of the things I appreciate most about Apollo 13 is its accuracy. The things that were changed to streamline the film were minor details or a compressing of many actual people into a single character. Even the foreshadowing, like Marilyn Lovell losing her wedding ring down a shower drain--something I was convinced was included as a "here comes trouble" moment--actually happened.

      Of course, when the real story is this good, you don't have to monkey much with the narrative.

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  4. I've watched Apollo 13 a bunch of times over the years, and I always get sucked in by it. I'm the prime target for it as a space junkie, though. My appreciation for the movie has only grown as I've read more about the program and that mission in particular.

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    1. I knew from previous conversations that you're a space nerd like me. I was really pleased to find it on a shelf and happy to watch it again. I was even happier that it was better than I remembered.

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  5. I'm a few years older than you and Apollo was happening in my earliest memories. I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. Like you, this film held no surprises for me when I watched it, but I was likewise drawn in by how well it presented everything.

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    1. This really is how to do historical drama--if I know the story, I need you to make it as compelling as possible for me. This succeeds.

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  6. Fantastic movie, great performances. Tom Hanks performance is so strong, so decent, he almost typecasts himself as the quintessential "good" man. Love him in this.

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    1. Yeah, Tom Hanks is sort of the modern Henry Fonda in that respect. One of these days he needs to play a genuinely evil character because he'd be awesome at it.

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