Review of Apollo 13 (1995) by Scott C — 17 Nov 2012

When I hear a story described as "heartwarming" my guard immediately goes up.

Indeed, it's an old-fashioned movie in the worst sense. The characters are cardboard, the music -- and in fact the entire mood -- is reverential to the point of nausea. Like all Howard's films, it's manipulative in a golly and gosh way, in a pat, slick,package.

The dialogue is all bluntly about the mission, with none of the indirect details that flesh out a good story and give the characters three-dimensions.

The actors are all good actors, but they act too much, in a stock, predigested way. There's no searching for the particular truth of the moment. Howard can direct a film, but he doesn't require his actors to discard their learned tricks and look deeper into themselves.

There's more drama and tension in listening to recordings of the actual flight, the almost bland, military precision of real people on the edge of survival, unrehearsed, as it is actually happening.

I gave it three stars for its production values -- although given its big budget, this is the minimum to be expected from Hollywood these days. And then deducted a star for (1) the music, which was either hyper-emotional or cloying, and almost always intrusive, and (2) its absolutely false use of the sound of rocket engines in outer space -- where, of course, there is no air and therefore no sound. This last was inexcusable in a film that pretends to authenticity.