Apollo 13 Film Analysis

The Apollo 13 mission was a significant historical event, because of the dangerous repercussions that followed the explosion of the oxygen tank on Apollo 13. The story in which the astronauts Lovell, Swigert, and Haise surviving these errors during the flight is truly incredible.

In the movie Apollo 13, the creators depicted most of the events involving the crew’s adventure to and from space quite accurately. Although creating most events successfully the creators of Apollo 13 failed in many regards when it came to the creation of the plans the crew used to survive, and the small details that were missed, involving the crew in the process of flying the space shuttle and surviving the accident.

The movie Apollo 13 was an extremely well made film in accordance with American history. Although the creators of the movie missed a few details along the way they definitely did their research on the events which occurred on the Apollo 13 mission. The movie accurately portrayed all main events, even including the personal lives of the astronauts and their families.

Although Apollo 13 lacked some detail, it was able to simplify what happened in the movie to create an easier viewing experience. This gave the viewer to get at least, a basic understanding of what happened on the incredible Apollo 13 mission.

The movie Apollo 13, presents a number of incredible events. In the film the main characters are Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert, who were the astronauts on the Apollo 13 mission. It is also important, however, to remember another astronaut Ken Mattingly who was replaced by Swigert for the mission.

Lovell is the leader, who takes command of his team of astronauts. In actuality him and his crew were not originally scheduled to fly to the moon until the Apollo 14 mission, but were moved up on the schedule due to the previous crew leader receiving an ear infection.

Unfortunately only a couple days before the launch it is found that Mattingly was exposed to measles and forced to stay off the Apollo 13 flight and replaced with Swigert from the back up crew. A few days later Lovell and his crew take off on the Apollo 13 mission.

At first all is well until the second oxygen tank explodes, causing many problems for the crew; the most potent problem being that the crew was losing oxygen fast. Luckily, due to much ingenuity by the crew and mission control, the crew is able to arrive safely to earth without the deaths of any astronauts.

Although flawed in the technical events, there are many realities that the movie Apollo 13, successfully presents. One of these realities being the representation of supporting details. An example of this is seen when the creators of the movie had Lovell’s wife fearing that her husband might die on the Apollo mission. This fear was something real that Lovell’s wife in actuality experienced, in which the creators portray quite accurately by showing the nightmare she had of her husband’s death.

Another example of an accurate supporting detail was how the creators were able to describe Mattingly’s inability to fly on Apollo 13 due to his exposure to German measles. The movie Apollo 13, Is also quite precise when it comes to presenting the dates and places of important events revolving around the Apollo 13 mission. This is shown when the creators precisely show an accurate date and place of launch which was at Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970.

Another important date and location that was accurately presented was where the lunar module landed which was, in the Pacific Ocean, on April 17, 1970. Finally, the creators also accurately showed the behavior of the astronauts on the mission, which can be seen in numerous virtues including the fear and courage of all astronauts on the mission. The creators of Apollo 13, made a majestic achievement in accurately portraying the number of events surrounding Apollo 13 with the depth of the story that they were trying to represent.

Despite the realities the creators were able to show, they failed to demonstrate the development of the plans the Apollo 13 crew used to survive. In the movie it displays mission control developing the plan to make the resources of the lunar module last for three men for four days, even though in reality NASA had a preliminary lifeboat already simulated, whereas in the movie, to increase drama, made it seem as though mission control had made up the plan on the spot.

Also in the movie there was an error with the carbon dioxide filter in which the movie made seem as if mission control solved the problem, but in actuality they had called in a former astronaut, Joe Kerwin (Universe Today, Mattingly). Unfortunately these flaws made Apollo 13 less accurate, but it is still important to recognize that this movie is still the most accurate portrayal of Apollo 13 seen thus far.

In the movie Apollo 13, the creators also failed in a few regards when it came to the details of what happened on Apollo 13. One of these errors is first seen when Swigert receives orders from mission control to mix the oxygen and hydrogen tanks.

In the movie immediately after he does this the crew hears a loud bang, whereas in truth they did not in fact hear the bang until a couple minutes after the mixing of the tanks had taken place. One of the most shocking facts however is that Al Shepherd was not moved back to Apollo 14 because of an ear infection, but in fact because of his lack of training, and NASA trying to allow him more time to train before actually heading off into space.

Another flaw seen is that the crawler which carries the Saturn V out to the launch pad in the movie was surprisingly pretty quiet despite the fact that the crawler, in reality, is extremely noisy. Another anomaly that comes into play, is in the movie the Apollo 13 launch starts immediately as the countdown reaches zero, however in the real event, Apollo 13 launched before the countdown reached zero. Another small flaw one might notice is that given the times during the movie it can be seen that the phases of the moon are wrong. Also relating to the moon, one more defect is seen when the astronauts point to the moon and say, “That’s our destination the Sea of Tranquility” (Apollo 13).

Although unfortunate that the creators of Apollo 13 missed these details, they still did an incredible job accurately depicting the events of mission within the time they were given for the movie (Philip Chien).

The reviewer chose the movie, Apollo 13 for quite mediocre reasons. The first reason the reviewer decided Apollo 13 as a research topic was that the reviewer had already seen the movie and thought by chance he might get away with not having to go through the trouble of watching a new movie which was quite foolish on the reviewer’s part given the technical depth of the actual event and the movie itself. Although the reviewer chose the movie on account of mostly foolish reasons he redeems himself with the notion that he knew that Apollo 13 was a huge historical event involving a great land mark for American ingenuity given the great minds it took to survive the accident.

Also, in retrospect, the reviewer was quite pleased with the movie as a whole not only was it for the most part extremely precise, but also the costumes matched the legitimate uniforms of the Apollo 13 crew almost perfectly (Google Images). Overall, the reviewer thought the film was extremely relevant to American history, and given its accuracies was a very entertaining movie.

The creators of Apollo 13 were very thorough when it came to important events, but were lacking when it came to the details of the splendid Apollo 13 mission. Regardless of its deficiencies when it came to detail, the makers of Apollo 13 spared no expense to get the main ideas across while still keeping the audience interested.

The ingenuity of this should not be over looked, for what is the point of history if no one cares enough to learn it, which is exactly what the creators of the movie did by giving Americans the motivation to learn about our own history by making the learning enjoyable. Therefore, the movie Apollo 13 accomplishes its goal perfectly by successfully teaching history.