Apollo 13

Bound for America's third lunar landing in 1970, the crew of Apollo 13 faces a lethal catastrophe when an on-board oxygen tank explodes, leaving NASA scientists and engineers to orchestrate an unprecedented rescue mission from 200,000 miles away.

This is a brilliant piece of filmmaking. The directorial style shown by Ron Howard comes a long way from the hooker/corpse comedy NIGHT SHIFT and deftly mixes new footage with old newsreel shots and computer-animated effects. And the performances from Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and the rest are great.

So why’s it only a three-star movie here? Well, it’s in the same boat as QUIZ SHOW for me–a movie dramatization based on a true-life event from the distant past. It’s good drama, but it has no personal meaning for me. I’m only 17 years old. Now if it was based on an earth-shattering event from my lifetime, say the Gulf War or the tragic transition of “Saturday Night Live” from funny to godawful, I might be able to drum up some emotion. But for now, I see APOLLO 13 as a compelling yet flawed movie.

For starters, the first thirty or more minutes of the film are way too boring and unnecessary. Do we really need to see the homelife of the astronauts and their three months of training and preparation for the Apollo 13 mission? No, just tell us they’re astronauts and get to the actual flight. It’s this early, expendable stuff I don’t like. It’s supposed to make us get to know and care for the characters, but what it does is make us get sick of them toward the end, when the movie’s running long, and hope they’ll get sucked into the vacuum of space so the movie will be over.

If you’re somehow ignorant of the movie’s plot, Hanks, Bacon and Bill Paxton are astronauts on a routine moon mission fraught with tragedy. It’s based on the actual week in 1970 when the nation held its breath for our Apollo 13 astronauts, stuck in space after a freak explosion screwed up their controls. The odds are infinitesimal that they’ll make it back to earth alive, so each step of the journey is milked for all the suspense it can get. Then, when they finally do make it past that individual obstacle, a new obstacle arises to take its place, obstacle after obstacle until the end of the movie.

Forgive the skimpy plot summary, but everyone’s already seen this movie. But don’t allow my criticism to keep you from seeing a good movie, which remains an essential technical milestone reviewed on MovieToWatch.

In April 1970, veteran astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) commands the Apollo 13 mission bound for the lunar surface alongside Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise (Bill Paxton). Days prior to launch, original pilot Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) is grounded due to measles exposure, forcing backup Swigert to step in on short notice.

The launch proceeds flawlessly, but two days into the flight while cruising 205,000 miles from Earth, Mission Control instructs the crew to perform a routine stir of the oxygen tanks. A short circuit ignites a catastrophic internal explosion inside the Service Module, blowing out side panels and venting critical life-sustaining oxygen into the black vacuum of space.

With power, water, and breathable air draining rapidly, the lunar landing is aborted. Flight Director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) and his team of Houston flight controllers rally to convert the two-man Lunar Module ‘Aquarius’ into a makeshift lifeboat for three men. Together with a grounded Ken Mattingly working tirelessly in the flight simulators to conserve every amp of battery power, NASA races against time to slingshot the crippled spacecraft around the moon and guide the freezing crew home.