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Apollo 13 Stars: Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris Director: Ron Howard BBFC Certificate: PG Opened: Christmas 1995 |
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This is surely the film formula that all Hollywood producers dream
of. One of the world's most accomplished directors, whose name alone
carries plenty of box office clout,
a whole stack of a-list stars including two of Hollywood's finest
actors (double Oscar winner Hanks and the ever popular, unbelievably
prolific Bacon), and a recent true to life story that captured the
hearts and imaginations of the
whole world. So why hasn't it been made before now? Well, it could be
because the movie needs to be filmed in actual zero gravity.
Something Howard was able to achieve (at enormous expense) only by
getting a NASA 707 to perform stomach churning loops and parabolas to
gain a few seconds of
anti-gravity for each scene.
Based on mission commander Jim Lovell (played by Hanks in the movie) and Jeffrey Kleuger's book Lost Moon which tells the incredible story of Apollo 13's disastrous oxygen leak and miraculous return to Earth in minute, yet still fascinating detail, both Howard and Hanks had long wanted to make the film, though up until now the opportunity had not arisen. The plot, naturally revolves around the real-life thirteenth Apollo mission, launched in 1970 and destined to land in the moon's Fra Mauro highlands. On board were mission commander James Lovell (Hanks), LEM pilot Fred Haise (Paxton) and Command Module pilot Jack Swigert (Bacon), whilst their ground crew included flight director Gene Kranz (Harris) and the mission's original CM pilot, who was dropped from the crew at the last minute due to a measles scare, Ken Mattingly (Sinise). All is well with the flight until day three when a routine oxygen tank 'stir' results in a freak explosion which cripples the ship, destroying it's power cells and causing a nightmarish oxygen leak. Through use of theoretical backup contingency procedures, human ingenuity and a good degree of pure luck, the Houston based ground crew have to guide the crippled Apollo space craft and her crew back to Earth in one piece. I give away nothing by saying that the ship and crew return home safely (chiefly because anyone over the age of forty, and a good deal of us under that age, are well aware of the real-life events of that flight). Howard, ever the lover of TV-style scene hopping, chooses to skip liberally between the movie's three principal settings, on board Apollo 13, inside mission control, and at home with the Lovells. He pulls this off beautifully and achieves a superb balance between fraught tension, pure fear, and bare-teethed determination. Hanks is every bit as good as Lovell as he was in both Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, both performances for which he won an Oscar. Bacon once again shows his diverse acting ability as the young hot- headed though professional CM pilot who Haise secretly blames for the accident. Paxton too shows depth of character, a facet noticeably missing form his performance in both Aliens and the 1996 summer movie Twister. Sinise is delightful as Mattingly, showing the character's mixed emotions over the mission with consummate ease. It is Harris however who really deserves most accolade for his acting performance. Capturing the complex personality of Houston head-honcho Gene Kranz perfectly, he displays a convincing range of emotions and his performance is multi-layered enough to become more than credible. It would seem that he is more at home with the 'steely-eyed missile man' roles he plays in this film and in Michael Bay's The Rock than with lame comedies like Milk Money. Weighing in at over 140 minutes, Apollo 13 is no light movie, and, unless you either work for NASA or have read Lovell/Kreuger's superb book, you may have difficulty with some of the jargon (though Howard manages to get around this well without once patronising the audience), but excellent performances all round, a well-adapted screenplay and solid direction ensure that this is one film that will stay with you for a very long time. Reviewed by: Tom Green
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