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Apollo 13 / Аполлон 13 (1995)

Posted By: denisbul

Date: 3 Sep 2011 06:36:25

English

It had been less than a year since man first walked on the moon, but as far as the American public was concerned, Apollo 13 was just another "routine" space flight- until these words pierced the immense void of space: "Houston, we have a problem." Stranded 205,000 miles from Earth in a crippled spacecraft, astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert fight a desperate battle to survive. Meanwhile, at Mission Control, astronaut Ken Mattingly, flight director Gene Kranz and a heroic ground crew race against time-and the odds- to bring them home.

Russian

Космический блокбастер, приключенческая лента с изобретательным сюжетом, который держит в напряжении и щекочет нервы, но при этом лишен кровопролития и жестокости. Корабль Аполлон 13 терпит катастрофу в глубинах космоса. Мужественные астронавты на волосок от гибели…

There's probably no more unlikely Hollywood directorial icon of the past quarter century or so than Ron Howard, television's beloved Opie and Richie who has fashioned a rather remarkable oeuvre of fairly disparate film projects. In 1995, when Apollo 13 was originally released, he was still largely seen as a very talented, but perhaps less than really noteworthy, director of frothy comedies like Splash and Night Shift. If he had started to make his presence felt more keenly with the lovely fantasy Willow, or the more nuanced comedy-drama Parenthood, his "epics" (for wont of a better word) like Backdraft and Far and Away had as many naysayers as proponents. And so people were largely unprepared for the totally masterful job Howard achieved with Apollo 13, a film that could have easily veered into melodrama and overacting. One of the major saving graces in fact of the film is the inerrantly understated performances, especially by Hanks as Lovell and the exquisite Katheen Quinlan (who received a well deserved Oscar nomination) as his wife, Marilyn.

Apollo 13 / Аполлон 13 (1995)

If the emotional gist of the film is built largely around a couple who spend a really small amount of screen time together (something that in and of itself is noteworthy), Apollo 13 is filled to the brim with an assortment of stellar turns from everyone including Ed Harris (another Oscar nominee for this film) as overwhelmed Flight Director Gene Kranz to Gary Sinise as Ken Mattingly, the astronaut originally scheduled in Swigert's place whose exposure to the measles kept him earthbound, paving the way for his assistance in figuring out how to get his three buddies back safely. Apollo 13 is filled with so many wonderful moments from all of these actors, as well as the on-board trio of Hanks, Paxton and Bacon, that it becomes a textbook example of fine ensemble acting. There are no "star turns" here, and indeed almost throwaway moments like Quinlan losing her wedding ring down a drain become emotionally devastating simply because we have become so invested in the characters without being given "acting lessons" by the performers.

Apollo 13 / Аполлон 13 (1995)

Howard manages to maintain several simultaneous story arcs effortlessly throughout the film, ping ponging between the astronaut trio's ordeal on board a crippled and freezing spacecraft, Mission Control's increasingly desperate attempts to figure out a way to get them back, and the home life of the astronauts' spouses, chiefly Marilyn Lovell. While there is no lack of technical specificity throughout William Broyles, Jr. and Al Reinert's screenplay (adapted from a book co-written by Lovell), the film is never weighed down by "tech speak," again because when it's delivered, it's being done by characters the audience has grown to know and be involved with as human beings, people who just happen to be shooting other people into space atop massive tubes of flame. Aiding and abetting the uniformly fine performances is a spot on production design, which perfectly recreates the feel of both the claustrophobic spacecraft and lunar module, but more importantly the sort of stifling atmosphere of early 70's Texas.

Apollo 13 / Аполлон 13 (1995)

Apollo 13 does evidently veer from the historical record to make an occasional dramatic point. Astronauts are famously tamped down emotionally, and the screenwriters and Howard wisely amped up the conflict and ostensible tension as the crippled craft threatens to slowly kill Lovell, Haise and Swigert. But the brief, if volatile, temper tantrums seem somehow very "right" in the dramatic framework of this retelling, and certainly never devolve into mere histrionic rants made for Oscar consideration. This is one of Hanks' most appealingly low key performances, one grounded in that sort of calm assurance that one always hopes to hear from your in flight Captain aboard a transcontinental airplane ride. It makes for a fascinating, and absolutely riveting, dichotomy in that these three can maintain such an aura of cool when everything around them seems to be going horribly, horribly wrong.

Apollo 13 / Аполлон 13 (1995)

There's a long list of 'thirteens' that those with an irrational fear of the number have assembled vis a vis this flight, cobbled together to "prove" the number is unlucky. Obviously, it was Apollo 13, but launch time on April 11, 1970 was (in military parlance) 13:13, and it was two days later, on the thirteenth of April that events started cascading leaving the spacecraft hobbled. All of this may come under the heading of "you see what you want to see," but the undeniable fact is this was one of the most dramatic episodes in Man's attempts to explore beyond his own planet, and against all odds, it was one which ended happily. Howard's film remains a fitting testament to the fortitude of individual men's (and women's) wills, as well as the collective spirit of Mankind itself. Apollo 13 set Howard up as a director truly to be reckoned with, and now fifteen years on, that assessment seems as sure as Lovell's own temperament.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman (blu-ray.com)