Movie of the Week: Apollo 13

Alexa: Thoughts that ran through my mind while watching “Apollo 13” - 1) I should really stop complaining about how cold it is, because at least I’m not trapped in a frigid spacecraft with low oxygen thousands of miles from Earth; 2) Everyone at NASA is so much smarter than I could ever hope to be; 3) I am totally fine never, ever going to space. “Apollo 13” was on my list of movies that I should have seen by now but never got around to watching, and it did not disappoint. I knew the outcome of the real Apollo 13 mission going into the film, but it kept me on the edge of my seat nonetheless. It starts a little slow, but quickly builds momentum once the mission actually begins. Director Ron Howard takes a refreshingly no-frills approach, opting to convey the story as realistically as possible. He doesn’t overdramatize anything because the intensity of the real-life events is enough. His attention to detail is impeccable. And the performances work so well for the same reasons, bolstered by a stellar cast. A solid movie all around that holds up more than 20 years after its release.

Joel: Apollo 13 is one of those movies that I’ve seen before but it was some point in the sixth grade, broken up over three different different days one class period at a time. It’s easy to remember it as a movie that was pretty good, but then again it’s being compared to a sixth grade science lecture so maybe it’s got an unfair advantage. If you’re like me and your most recent viewing of this movie was because you had a substitute teacher for a few days in middle school, you owe it to yourself to give this movie another viewing.

So much of this movie is a celebration of intelligence and creativity, and facing a problem head on and figuring a solution out. The characters are put in an impossible situation, one that is by all accounts, completely unfair. And the movie takes some time to dwell on that. We get to experience the astronaut's sadness and remorse about not getting to make it to the moon. But the bulk of this movie is about facing down a challenge and overcoming it through ingenuity and brilliance. In many ways Apollo 13 feels like it serves as a bit of a prototype for The Martian, with our main characters stranded out in space, seemingly hopeless but instead of giving up, deciding instead to make something impossible, possible. I love that the problems in this movie are solved by hard work and using creative thinking, and a staggering amount of brilliance from everyone involved. It’s thrilling to see a group of people working together at what they do best to bring these three guys home.

This is one of Ron Howard’s strongest movies, and the cast that he’s pulled together for this one is fantastic. It’s easy to praise the three main characters being played by movie stars, but even the actors in the smaller roles are able to add weight to the events unfolding throughout the movie. The movie is reverent of amazing things that were happening during this time period, even calling out people for viewing space travel as routine so shortly after man first walked on the moon. I know many people view Apollo 13 as a reason to never want to go into space, but to me, watching the movie only makes the idea of space travel more exciting. Space is portrayed as scary, and dangerous and yes very life threatening if you’re not careful, but it also presents space travel as exciting, and awe inspiring, and conquerable and above all, worth it.

Chris: This is one of those movies where it doesn’t matter that it’s a true story and you already know the outcome, it’s still stressful to watch both for the astronauts trying to survive but to watch the engineers on Earth scrambling to find ways to successfully bring them back. Also I wonder if this movie is what led to Ed Harris being the director character in The Truman Show because the guy is apparently really good at sitting in a control room with a headset on while calling the shots. Aside from the dated CGI, the movie holds up really well and I can’t even fault them for the CGI because it was 1995 after all but the cast is the major reason why Apollo 13 is still a great movie to watch.

Jason: In my head canon, I always tend to get this movie confused with Armageddon for some reason. I know they are very different movies but they mush together in my brain. Of all the “based on real events” films we have watched on here, this has got to be the one in which I found myself most invested. I, being a male who grew up in the 90’s have always had my head in the stars. We always heard about the great moon missions and then we got to watch some of the shuttle missions. I have done the NASA launch site tour in Florida and it has always seemed like a glamorous goal to be an astronaut. This movie shows an aspect of why that isn’t always the case. And it isn’t just that they got up there and then had a catastrophic failure. It’s the families that are left on the ground. It’s the crewmate who is told he can’t go up mere weeks before launch because of a possible illness. It’s the control crew who literally have these men’s lives in their hands. It is all very stressful. And although we know how it ends, it doesn’t make it any less harrowing in the moment.

The story entertained me. The acting was all phenomenal (how could it not be with this cast?). The CGI holds up pretty well, givin the era this was made. There is only one point of contention: at a couple of points in the dialog, a character says something that explains what is happening in layman’s terms. Control gives a string of numbers and Jim looks at his crew and repeats it but dumbed down. I understand that this was completely intentional. Otherwise, the audience would have not understood the science lingo being thrown about. It just felt like it broke the fourth wall a little bit each time it happened. But that is a minor gripe in an otherwise fantastic film.

Side note, apparently after one of the test screenings, a commenter said that the ending was too “Hollywood” and that the characters would have never survived in reality. Thanks, history.