The "Widescreen" Version is Not Widescreen !!!, Jun 13 2004

The problem with this movie is the claimed "Widescreen" format, which is fraudulent. What they have done is taken the full-screen version... and sliced the top and bottom off of the picture and fraudulently packaged it as "Widescreen."

I am currently watching "Apollo 13" on the Sci-Fi channel in fullscreen... and running the DVD at the same time, flipping between them. What is immediately viewed is that the width of the field of view is identical between the cable TV fullscreen version and the claimed DVD widescreen version. The DVD "Widescreen" version has deliberately cut off the top and bottom of the fullscreen view and then dared to call this "Widescreen." As all who have compared fullscreen with widescreen know, the widescreen version should reveal up to a third more width than fullscreen without decreasing at all the vertical field of view. This DVD does exactly the reverse, keeping the width the same as the fullscreen cable TV airing while cutting off the top and bottom of the fullscreen picture.

Thus... this DVD has ripped customers off in claiming it is Widescreen.

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A Dandy Film! And A Terrific "Collector's Edition" DVD!, May 4 2004

By	David Von Pein (Mooresville, Indiana; USA) - See all my reviews

Director Ron Howard guides this project with passion. A passion that seems to be equally shared by each and every one of his starring actors on screen -- Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Bill Paxton, and Ed Harris. Plus, there's the ever-appealing Kathleen Quinlan, as Hanks' wife. Quinlan and Howard worked together more than two decades prior to this movie -- on "American Graffiti" (Kathleen had a very small role in that 1973 film, which starred Howard).

Three astronauts' lives hang in the balance during the last half of this finely-tuned film, as the Apollo 13 spacecraft suffers a major "problem" on board. An oxygen tank explodes, crippling the craft and endangering the lives of the moon-bound passengers (Astronauts Lovell, Haise, and Swigert -- portrayed by Hanks, Paxton, and Bacon, respectively).

Some of the more dramatic dialogue-driven scenes on board the spacecraft are fictionalized, but most of this film (from what I've been able to discern) is derived from actual, true events. With much of the dialogue between Mission Control and the spacecraft being taken (nearly verbatim) from the official NASA tapes and transcripts.

This single-disc (and single-sided) Universal "Collector's Edition" DVD delivers the goods admirably IMO, with very good picture quality, excellent 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround sound (with the rousing music score shining through especially well), and some nice bonus features to boot.

The film is presented here in its original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1. This is the perfect screen shape for this film, in my view -- nice and w-i-d-e! And it looks great via this anamorphically-enhanced DVD transfer.

DVD Special Features include a very informative and extremely fun-to-watch Making-Of documentary, "Lost Moon". This feature, which runs 58 minutes, begins with a nicely well-preserved clip of the real three Apollo 13 astronauts being introduced by Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show" (circa May 1970). Director Ron Howard, and the cast members, add much insight into the making of this technically-challenging motion picture, including stories (with film clips) from rehearsals inside the KC-135 aircraft (a modified Boeing 707 jetliner) known as "The Vomit Comet", which was used by the filmmakers to simulate weightlessness. Interesting stuff here.

Also on tap on the DVD are two Audio Commentary Tracks (one of them by Director Howard), the film's Theatrical Trailer, and some extensive text notes.

This DVD package also contains a multi-page (fold-out type) paper insert, which contains Production Notes, Chapter Lists (for both the film AND the nearly-hour-long documentary, which is broken down into 13 "chapters" itself), and some photographs.

Plus -- Don't forget about the really cool "Easter Egg" on this disc. Well, I guess you could say it's not really an "Egg", being that it isn't really "hidden" here. But it isn't an "advertised" bonus on the packaging, at any rate. -- By just popping in the disc and getting to the "Main Menu", you thereby get to the unadvertised bonus of the "Complete Musical Score" to the film, which will play non-stop to its end by just leaving the Main Menu on the screen. Pretty nifty indeed. An excellent idea, I think, for incorporating an "Isolated Music Score" onto a DVD. I wish more DVDs had this nice musical feature. The music score can be "advanced" to the next "track" (or music segment) by using your remote's "Skip" or "Chapter Advance" key. (You can only go "forward" in the score, however. The "Skip Back" button has been disabled for this bonus feature; at least it has been on my player.)

"Apollo 13" is a good film to re-visit occasionally -- and this well-done Universal Collector's Edition DVD makes doing just that even a greater pleasure.