APOLLO 13 (1995)
A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003
Judging by the way media covers current events, only the bad news is worthy news. This isn't the recent phenomenon, and one of the best illustration might come in the form of the historical incident that happened more than three decades ago and later served as an inspiration for APOLLO 13, 1995 drama directed by Ron Howard.
The plot begins in July 1969 when the whole world watches one of last century's most celebrated events - Neil Armstrong landing on the Moon. However, only nine months later three US astronauts - Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (played by Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (played by Kevin Bacon) - are travelling to the Moon with the world rapidly losing interest in one of greatest technological achievements of that age. However, what was supposed to be a "routine" space flight turns into drama when one of the oxygen tanks on "Apollo 13" spacecraft explodes. With their ship seriously damaged, astronauts aren't only forced to cancel their mission; they must find way to prevent themselves from being suffocated or frozen to death. But this is only part of the problem - they must quickly find the way to return the Earth before their supplies of air and water run out. Aided by Houston control and its flight director Krantz (played by Ed Harris) and using all of their ingenuity, Lovell and its crew try to solve all those problems, as the world gets captivated by the unfolding drama 300,000 kilometres from Earth.
While many period films in 1990s Hollywood had problems with historical accuracy, APOLLO 13 almost reaches levels of documentary. Based on the book by one of the event's main participants, thoroughly researched and reconstructed with the care about slightest of details, this film nevertheless benefited from special effects and other wonders of film technology. Ron Howard, filmmaker best known as the embodiment of Hollywood mainstream and American family values, proved to be good choice for the director - his direction is competent and manages to make even the most mundane details of the doomed mission quite interesting. In doing so, he is aided by very good cast - Tom Hanks, who obviously had some thoughts about using this heroic role as way to get his third "Oscar"; Bacon and Paxton as his partner, Gary Sinise in one of rare opportunities to play good guy and Ed Harris as no-nonsense flight director. The script by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert, on the other hand, spent too much time on the boring details of Lovell's family life, probably in order to create room for female roles in what was actually all-male story. However, that created opportunity for Kathleen Quinlan to give some nice performance as Lovell's wife.
The worst problem for APOLLO 13, however, lies in the fact that it is nothing more than glorified docudrama, and the event in question is not obscure enough for audience to know how things would turn in the end. The movie, therefore, lacks suspense, and Howard could have made this film interesting only if he dealt with some obscure details of the mission - those that might have painted negative picture of NASA. But there wasn't room for that in APOLLO 13 - the film was designed as the celebration of American "successful failure" and the heroism and ingenuity of its men. Howard could have at least put some sour note in the film by showing how all those heroic efforts were in vain and how the "Apollo" space program came to premature and undeserved end. Perhaps this should be the subject of another film, but, just like the mission itself, APOLLO 13 leaves impression of being both success and failure.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
Review written on January 17th 2003
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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