Great Sets, but lots of Fiction

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 2007)

I do hope I am not spoiling much in the sense of the plot with this comment, but I wanted to be respectful of any reader at the beginning.
Apollo 13 is a technically well crafted movie with utterly realistic sets of the spacecraft and mission control. The main sequences of the mission are largely accurate, but the people plots are in my view often silly. The flight controllers in Houston were at the time some of the most able folks in this area in the world yet in the movie they are bumbling around in a way that is truly embarrassing. One of the saddest aspects was how they used this oaf from the company that built the LM who complained every time that "...it is not designed to do that..." Utter and complete NONSENSE. The true story is far better than any of the corny romance crap in the movie. I really don't think women go to movies just for this tripe anyway. Hollywood has to be more imaginative. In real life the Grumman plant in Bethpage Long Island NY came a alive during the night with men coming in off shift in the middle of the night without being asked to do so and from vacation to provide the knowledge of their little corner of the LM. Everyone knew that the LM was going to have to bring the boys back and it was the ground that made it so. The astronauts while having endure the cold and other privations as well as the disappointment for not getting to landing did relatively little in the effort to get them home. Another aspect is the one bespectacled controller who seems at a loss to solve any of the problems until astronaut Mattingly get there and saves the day with his knowledge! You gotta be kidding me! The controller they are effectively disrespecting with this fiction was John Aaron who for ALL accounts was one of two men who were really saving the mission. Kranz is effusive in his praise for Aaron in his book. There are many other matters in this disappointing movie. The problem is that when movies such as this one or Titanic and such like are made the average person often gets their history from them; flawed as it is. I have no problem with Hollywood writing movies that are period pieces and they can then have their idiot romances and such like. However, I think it behooves them to get it right, perfectly right when you call a movie Apollo 13, Gettysburg, The Longest Day, Hindenburg or whatever. It is a shame that they have multi-million dollar sets and a 50 cent plot. As an aficionado of space travel I find I can't watch the movie very often because of the mistakes and fiction. It is not funny to me. It is disrespectful to some true heroes who gave far more to their country than their government salaries would ever suggest.