Apollo 13
by Ron Howard
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Bill Paxton, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, Tom HanksDirector: Ron Howard
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Original recording reissued
Running Time: 140 minutes
Release Date: 1995-11-21
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios
VHS Movie Reviews of Apollo 13
Movie Review: Perfect For Everyone (especially Parents & Classrooms)
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and for about a million reasons. But I'll just share a few.
Chances are good that you already know the basic premise: Three astronauts embark on a space mission to the moon, but technical complications not only jeopardize the mission, but their lives as well. Back on Earth, the Mission Control team based out of Houston work around the clock to get the astronauts home safely.
Based on real events (and mostly faithful, according to those who lived through them), the story does so many things right that most movies from the "disaster genre" or "rescue genre" to wrong.
First and foremost, we actually care about these characters. Director Ron Howard and the screenwriters dedicate equal time to the people and historical events on Earth as the intense drama that occurs in space. Besides the expected focus on the Mission Control Team who tirelessly work to get the Apollo 13 crew home, there's even a "prologue" of sorts before the April 13th, 1970 launch. Perhaps the most notable moment from these opening scenes is when Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) must decide whether to stick up for a potentially sick co-pilot (risking his chances of going to space), or to opt for a replacement. Or how about seeing Lovell's youngest daughter almost being too depressed over The Beatles' breakup to go see her father's broadcast from space? APOLLO 13 doesn't just delay the suspenseful scenes like JAWS or ALIEN do. Don't get me wrong, those are great movies, but again, Earth and space are equally important as the other in this story.
What history buffs will most appreciate is the political and historical attention to detail. Our three astronuats (played terrifically by Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon) are portrayed as everyday people with their own ambitions and personalities. These guys like to drink and embrace their women as much as they venture into the unknown. The Houston Mission Control director Gene Kranz (a superb Ed Harris) is introduced in a very unusual way --- a NASA vest arrives in a parcel from his wife; the camera follows the gift box, and once the vest (ridiculed by most of the staff) is worn, then we see Kranz's face. And Jim Lovell's wife Marylin (Kathleen Quinlan in another great role) does way, way more than just sob at home over her husband's danger in space. I've always wondered this question: How does an endangered man's wife keep the family together while they may never see their father again? APOLLO 13 answers this little factoid, among many other pieces of info. Every character contributes to the story, even the forgotten NASA individuals who took every precaution in split-second timing to get their pilots home. The modern equivalent of APOLLO 13 might actually be the TV show 24. Rather than focus on what went wrong, the film wisely just lets the characters say, "Okay, something's wrong, and we better move quick or else..."
The true star of APOLLO 13 isn't even the special effects, which indeed are still impressive. Actually, what becomes the foreground of the picture is all of the scientific detail that goes into solving the horrifying problem of getting three men trapped in a fragile spacecraft back to Earth. APOLLO 13 does a perfect job in helping us understand what's going on at every second of the crisis. News telecasts (some archival footage, some reenacted) show TV experts and old interviews that viewers at home would've seen. The Mission Control crew in Houston speak an unbelievable amount of lingo that I'm not sure I understood everything they said. But then when you see them draw on chalkboards, or put together models. And even if you don't understand what the technicians are saying, their vocal tone & behavior will make it clear. Simply put, anybody can understand what's going on in APOLLO 13, from the cultural events to the space sequences. Rather than insult your intelligence, APOLLO 13 puts it to work, and makes you a smarter person because of it.
I'll leave the rest for you to discover, but I want to give a final recommendation to any educators or concerned parents that are reading this review. In addition to a fabulous wealth of extras that everyone should check out, this 2-disc includes the IMAX version of APOLLO 13. This IMAX features slightly better video & audio quality, but the great thing about this version is that it's about 15 minutes shorter. The scenes that were cut from this IMAX version were mainly the ones that might offend parents, meaning you won't hear any curse words or see couples making out with each other. This film that was released in theaters was originally PG-13 for a couple days, so if you're concerned about the content your kids watch, the IMAX cut isn't going to offend anybody. Plus, this IMAX version removed some of the scenes on Earth that came before the space launch. So, if you just want to get to the "good stuff", then you have an alternative version.
APOLLO 13 is perfect in every way. It's exciting, educational. uplifting, well-crafted, well-acted, and an important chapter in American history. I don't really care about what happens in space, and I personally hate science. But if a film can take a subject I despise and win me over, then I owe it to the filmmakers to share it with every person I possibly can. Decades from now, APOLLO 13 is going to hold up incredibly well with future audiences. There are so many movies coming out that it's hard for new film buffs to know which ones to pick. APOLLO 13 doesn't deserve to be forgotten.
Summary of Apollo 13
NASA's worst nightmare turned into one of the space agency's most heroic moments in 1970, when the Apollo 13 crew was forced to hobble home in a disabled capsule after an explosion seriously damaged the moon-bound spacecraft. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton play (respectively) astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise in director Ron Howard's intense, painstakingly authentic docudrama. The Apollo 13 crew and Houston-based mission controllers race against time and heavy odds to return the damaged spacecraft safely to Earth from a distance of 205,500 miles. Using state-of-the-art special effects and ingenious filmmaking techniques, Howard and his stellar cast and crew build nail-biting tension while maintaining close fidelity to the facts. The result is a fitting tribute to the Apollo 13 mission and one of the biggest box-office hits of 1995. --Jeff ShannonRelying primarily on actual footage shot by NASA and by news organizations, this video documents the drama of the aborted Apollo 13 mission, in which three astronauts came close to losing their lives in space. The actual recording of commander Jim Lovell telling Houston about the "problem" made famous in the Hollywood version of Apollo 13 is presented, and the scenes showing distressed engineers in the actual control room in Houston are in some ways much more dramatic than anything seen on the big screen. This is, after all, reality, with real people scrambling under intense pressure to save real lives. Besides the footage inside mission control, the video also showcases invaluable flight footage shot by the astronauts aboard the crippled spaceship. This video takes an essentially chronological approach, but the technique of using the crew's postflight news conference to serve as narration, while it is at first confusing, serves a useful purpose. This is a no-frills production, but the excitement as NASA engineers mobilize and the whole world watches the news about the stricken spaceship is so gripping that any flourishes would only seem to get in the way. --Robert J. McNamara
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