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The leading man who can power a film to a huge box office total based on his name alone may be a dying breed, but in the 1990s there were several who vied for supremacy. At or near the top of the pack was Tom Hanks, whose famous everyman charm had powered such hits as Big, Sleepless in Seattle, and most successfully of all, Forrest Gump. Gump had also garnered him his second Best Actor Oscar in consecutive years (after Philadelphia). So in the mid-'90s, he was certainly riding high, and he was therefore able to choose a project close to his heart. Apollo 13 was that film, telling the story of the ill-fated mission to the moon that never reached its destination. Directed efficiently by Ron Howard, it continued Hanks' fine run of form both commercially and critically, making over $350 million worldwide and earning a Best Picture nomination, along with eight others (winning two).
The story is so packed full of incident, close-calls and near misses that it's absolutely prime material for a film treatment. It seems ridiculous that a true story should reinforce the suspicions linked to the number 13 - the mission number, it launched at 13:13 (i.e., 1.13pm), it reached the moon's gravity well on the 13th of the month - but it just goes to show that the old adage "the truth is stranger than fiction" holds some credence. And far from being a traditionally fictionalised Hollywood "true" story, this sticks extremely close to the facts. Adapted from the first-person account co-written by astronaut Jim Lovell (played by Hanks), and with many of the participants consulted during production, Apollo 13 may warrant the tag of the most historically accurate film Hollywood has ever produced. There are a few understandable dramatised moments, such as an added conflict between Bill Paxton's and Kevin Bacon's crew members during the flight, but these are few and far between. Even some moments that seem just too melodramatic to be true, such as Lovell's wife Marilyn (Kathleen Quinlan) losing her wedding ring down the shower drain and her pre-launch nightmare about a disaster in space, are taken from reality.
The acting is excellent across the board, with histrionics wisely kept to a minimum: the actors playing the astronauts come across as skilled and reliable as they were in reality, rather than being caricatures for the purposes of drama. A standout among the cast is Ed Harris, who not only is a commanding presence when he's on screen, he's also, with his flat-top hairdo and white waistcoat, the spitting image of the real flight controller Gene Kranz. Kathleen Quinlan does not have much to do except worry about her husband's safety (naturally), but her scenes could have been mawkish and the fact that they are not is a credit to her.
A good amount of time is spent on the set-up in the film, to the point that the actual spacecraft-crippling incident only happens at nearly an hour in. Yet the pacing is never too slow, as it's fascinating to see the life of the astronauts on the ground and the lengths to which they go to prepare for a mission. The running time of well over two hours never feels too long or drawn out, thanks mainly to the nature of the story: once one problem is overcome, the crew face another one, all the way until they miraculously survive Earth re-entry and touch down in the Pacific Ocean. Technically the film is beyond reproach, with an utterly comprehensive recreation of the period and the incredibly intricate equipment in the Apollo craft and in Mission Control. The pursuit of absolute realism even extended to taking the actors on parabolic high-atmosphere flights to simulate zero gravity; with only 22 seconds of weightlessness at a time, it must have been an incredibly arduous task to complete the filming. But as a testament to the people involved in the real mission and simply to tell a damn good yarn, it was worth it.
The extras
The two commentaries are a good listen. Ron Howard goes solo in the first and he has plenty to say, but the real highlight is the second commentary from Jim and Marilyn Lovell. Much of the talking is unsurprisingly done by Jim, who is a very entertaining and informative host, picking out some of the film's few inaccuracies (such as the sequencing of the launch procedure) but mainly praising its achievements while offering plenty of other tasty morsels along the way. Disc two contains three documentaries: the hour-long "The Lost Moon: The Triumph of Apollo 13", which covers the mission, 50-minute "Conquering Space: The Moon and Beyond", which looks at space exploration in the wider context, and the 12-minute "Lucky 13: The Astronauts' Story", which is similar in nature to "The Lost Moon", but offers some different contributions. A good set that gives ample historical perspective, but would've just benefited from more about the production of the film itself.
The summary
A slickly produced, comprehensively recreated, completely engrossing account of a remarkable true story.
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