posted 01-29-2002 12:31 AM               

I’ve already discussed my reservations about fiction ‘based on a true story’ in an article here at Not News, one that included reference to Apollo 13. It only seems fair that I address those issues in more detail in this review, but before I do I want to review the film as just a film. Ron Howard and his crew did such a wonderful job here that I don’t want their artistic achievement to be totally glossed over by concerns that others might view as pedantic.

On the one hand, the story of Apollo 13 seems ready-made for gripping drama. A faulty wire causes an explosion that cripples the spacecraft on its way to the moon, and the three astronauts – mission commander Jim Lovell (Hanks), astronaut Fred Haise (Paxton), and command module pilot Jack Swigert (Bacon)– need to find a way to stretch their available power and oxygen in order to get home. It’s a story archetype that’s worked at least since Homer’s Odyssey – brave adventurers in a far off place trying to get back to their families. But unlike Homer, Broyles and Reinert don’t have sea serpents and sorceresses to spice up the action – they have switches. Lots and lots of switches, inside the Odyssey command module, the Aquarius lunar excursion module (LEM), and Mission Control in Houston. What makes Apollo 13 work is that the writers and Howard make us feel the suspense that the participants feel as they flip switches, run computations, and wait for the results.

That starts from the script, which does three important things very well. It spends time with the astronauts and their families (especially the Lovells) before the launch, so we get to know them. It explains the bulk of the technical terms and operations in advance with natural-sounding exposition and excerpts of news footage, so we can keep up with the conversations between astronauts and controllers (many of which were taking directly or almost directly from flight transcripts). It also brings many of the controllers to life so that we can identify with their struggles and triumphs – whether it’s in the control room itself or in conference room meetings, several individuals either raise a problem that no had considered, achieve a solution, or take a stance on some vital issue. These moments give the actors a chance to show how much of themselves the controllers invested in the mission and its success, at which point our instincts kick in and we start to root for them.

Howard takes that foundation and runs with it, using tight close ups, pans, and swooping camera movements to convey the frantic pace of events. Sure, long division isn’t very dramatic when I do it, but how’d you like to have to get a perfect score on a math test with only minutes to work, knowing that if you get even one question wrong, someone’s going to die? Oh, and you haven’t had much sleep for the last few days. And millions of people are following events. Now there’s tension – and Howard makes you feel it. Howard also did a great job with the terrific cast – I can’t single anyone in particular out for praise, because everyone is fantastic; utterly believable in their roles and able to convey emotion in their facial expressions and tone of voice. It also doesn’t hurt that the movie looks and sounds great, from the weightless scenes shot in the KC-135 jet to the effects by Digital Domain to James Horner’s score. This film makes me feel its characters’ peril, triumph and relief, and I can’t commend it highly enough for that.

Now, onto the historical/fact-based issues. NASA astronauts and mission controllers have, for the most part, given the film high marks for accuracy in its sets and overall depiction of events. As far as I can gather, two major changes for dramatic purposes were made: Jack Swigert’s readiness to pilot the Odyssey is questioned much more in the film, including an argument between him and Haise that the astronauts say never occurred, and the several astronauts who worked in simulators to establish new procedures for the crippled ship were consolidated into the character of Ken Mattingly, the pilot that Swigert replaced due to a measles scare. I can understand the motivations for both changes, along with some of the other minor tweaks, but as much as I love Sinise’s portrayal of Mattingly, I can’t say I’m thrilled by the alterations. The Swigert changes in particular rankle me – rather than a rookie whose skills were questioned, the real Swigert helped to write many of the emergency malfunction procedures that command module pilots followed. When you use real names and real events in a story, I think you have a responsibility not to distort the way an audience will view those people, and Howard and company dropped the ball on that score. That said, Jim Lovell clearly thought enough of the film to record a commentary track for the DVD with his wife Marilyn, and many NASA personnel have sung the movie’s praises, so I’m willing to focus on what the filmmakers got right, in conveying the ‘larger truths’ of what it felt like to be involved in that mission.

The Lovell commentary is one of three significant bonus features on the Collector’s Edition DVD; the others are a commentary by Howard, and a documentary called Lost Moon: The Triumph of Apollo 13. The commentaries are enlightening, especially to those who want to know more about where things in the movie don’t quite match up with historical fact; both Howard and the Lovells are open and detailed about those changes and provide some nice background information. Howard also sheds light on the making of the film, from the effects to the way he worked with the actors to the way the film developed after the script was done and the cast and crew started to shoot. Unsurprisingly, Howard’s an easy going and very likable guy; he also is a smart guy who knows what he’s doing, as the movie and the commentary make clear.

The final feature is a bit of an oddity, in that I honestly don’t know which Apollo 13 the subtitle refers to – the film or the actual mission. At first it looks like this is a typical electronic press kit piece, with footage from interviews of the principals telling how they came together on the project. But it soon becomes clear that this is more substantial than a promotion piece, incorporating news footage and excerpts from the NASA archives along with interview with the surviving astronauts and ground crew to provide a narrative of the mission itself, occasionally interrupted by shots from the film or more interview footage explaining how the filmmakers translated particular moments and events to the movie. This includes some nice making-of effects shots, not only of the weightless shots in the KC-135 but also of some of the model and CG work that went into scenes like the launch and recovery sequences. In an ideal world, these two subjects would have been covered in two separate documentaries, each as long as this combined featurette, but this is still well done. I was especially struck by footage of Gene Krantz tearing up 20 years after the fact while recalling the crew’s return, immediately followed by Ed Harris talking about his effort to recreate that feeling in the movie. If the juxtaposition was necessary for whatever reason, at least the documentarians made the most of it.

While this is far from the most feature-packed of DVDs, the excellence of the movie itself and the quality of those features that are included make it well worth owning.