Apollo 13 DVD > Reviews > Spaceman the lifeboat!

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good

Advantages:	Historically accurate and informative
Disadvantages:	Trying to make a drama out of what was actually a crisis

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is a review of 'Apollo 13' in the HD DVD format

The world stood still for Apollo 11 as it descended to the surface of the moon in 1969. I was in a garden shed with a bed, a short-wave radio and a black and white TV. It was the topic on everyone's lips. However, by the time Apollo 13 flew, as is made clear in this movie, everyone had taken our sojourns to the moon for granted. When Lovell sent documentary footage back to earth on his outward journey none of the networks would even show it. Moon missions weren't news any more. This was only one year after we'd all held our breath in the early hours (UK time) watching that 'one small step.' We were quite unimpressed and had seen it all before.

This indifferent complacency changed, however. Apollo 13 was about to be big news too.

One of the oxygen tanks onboard the command module had a thermostat which had been designed to run at 28 volts. You wouldn't think they'd stick 65 volts through it would you? I mean - it isn't exactly rocket science.... but they did. The fuse blew. The tank heater registered 100 degrees but it was jammed on. Unknown to anyone, the temperature actually rose to something like 800 degrees, melted the shielding and bared the wires. When the order came from Houston to stir the oxygen tank and Swigert pressed the switch to operate the fan in the tank that should have done so, those wires sparked, the tank went off like a bomb and shot out of the side of the ship. It wasn't the only tank. However, the tanks were close together and another one lost pressure in no time.

The electrical systems needed the pressure. The astronauts needed to breathe. This was a big problem. Could they solve it and if so how? Would the teams running simulations back in on Earth be able to figure out how to keep three men alive for four days in the moon module that was only intended to keep two men alive for two?

Tom Hanks plays Commander Jim Lovell, Bill Paxton is Fred Haise and Kevin Bacon is Jack Swigert. These three astronauts are in for a bumpy ride and the odds are stacked against their survival.

This movie about an ill-fated mission depicts it so accurately that it could be used as an educational resource in school classrooms. As a docudrama it succeeds admirably. I'm not so sure about it as a movie. Ron Howard the director interprets the script of Jim Lovell's book very well. Amazing lengths are gone to in order to achieve realistic weightlessness with a set being assembled on a 'plane that flew over six hundred climbs and dives to simulate it. As the extra features show, the stories told by the astronauts themselves in interview footage tally with the portrayal of events in the movie. Also, in those special features, the clever juxtaposition of archive news footage and bits of the film clearly demonstrates that exact quotations from the past are accurately reproduced.

Kathleen Quinlan makes a convincing Marilyn Lovell who suffers the prospect of possibly losing her husband Jim in this frantic situation where a crippled ship must be brought home against all the odds. In interviews it's clear that she did and said things in real life shown in the film.

A mischievous satirical interviewer once buttonholed Tom Hanks and told him that the movie was about space and asked if that was why it 'had no atmosphere.' It's a funny line but It's not really fair to suggest that this movie is lacking feeling or good acting or to imply that the CGI effects and the use of real zero gravity wasn't ground-breaking and very smart.

What does rankle somewhat is the tub-thumping patriotic tone of the movie. It's one of those all-American, self-congratulatory productions in which Americans with spirit, guts and gumption strut and sway. I know the flight was an American one, the ship was American, and the space race had been won in order to elevate the status of the US over the Soviet Union so they must have been very proud - justifiably proud - of having achieved so much.

Nixon's speech to this effect on an aircraft carrier toward the end of Apollo 13 is full of this idealistic and patriotic moralising. The music swells to it. Chins jut. Grown men hug. Chests swell. It's really quite annoying.

I'm not sure either that the documentary and dramatic aspects of the movie sit well together. However, if you can ignore the gung-ho, us-Yanks-are-just-so-great, aspect, much of the characterisation is strong and although it isn't really a story so much as a faithful reconstruction and report of actual events in space in 1970, there's enough to make it worth watching.

For me, the first half of the movie seemed quite leisurely and then, after the tank blows, everyone is far more energised and motivated. The TV crews who ignored the flight when it was going okay were all over the lawn at the Lovell's place when it went wrong.

The high point for me came in the form of those special features packed with analysis and interviews of Jim Lovell and including footage only twenty years after the flight from various other significant individuals such as Gene Kranz who was in charge on the ground and said things like, 'We've never lost an American in space and we're not going to on my watch!' Oh well. He's played with a lot of attention to detail by Ed Harris. His lucky waistcoat and even his hair looks right as do his emotional reactions based on footage including an interview about the mission in which he got upset.

Seeing photos of Marilyn Lovell and her children as they appeared in 1970 set against how they were in the film and how they are now or were in the years after the mission is fascinating.

That's where I am at the moment having watched the movie twice, I'm now going through the considerable amount of extra material on the disk. This includes audio-commentaries with the Lovells and with Ron Howard so I guess I'll be watching the movie at least twice more!

There's a documentary called "Lost Moon: The Triumph of Apollo 13," which is filled with old news footage, interviews as I've mentioned already, and the juxtaposition of these with clips of the movie is very well done.

There's a documentary about the history of the space missions of the period, and 'Lucky 13, the astronaut's story,' which is a featurette about mission control.

I've seen other reviews praising the quality of the HD picture though I wasn't convinced. There are time when old footage is used cut in with the shots in the movie. These obviously look quite rough. There weren't many times, personally, when I marvelled at the cinematographic quality of the high-res HD content. For me the main thing, though, is the story of Apollo 13 that, for all its dramatic limitations, is remarkable and fascinating as documentary. Set in the Lovell's home, in Mission control, Houston, and on board a ship in space with the lights out a lot of the time, this is a movie where HD doesn't hurt but you're really not likely to gasp in awe at its wonders.

The events are remarkable and those involved have lots to say on the matter. The extra materials seem generous and are still holding my attention. It's more education than entertainment in my opinion and that's something to consider if you're thinking of getting it. On that basis I'd certainly recommend it. If the history of our trips to the moon interests you this HD DVD and its extras should prove informative, startling at times, and at least fairly entertaining at others.

If you'd like the background to the Apollo 13 mission in full you can find it here:

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/Academy/History/APOLLO-13/mission-rep ort.html

Amazon has it for around £15.