The Successful Failure

Apollo 13, the feature film adapted from the book “Lost Moon” by real life astronaut Jim Lovell and Kluger, is based upon real life events surrounding the dubbed “successful failure” Apollo 13 mission in 1970. The film is directed by Ron Howard and stars and all star cast which includes Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, and Ed Harris in major roles. It is a dramatic telling of the story of a near fatal space mission that is well told without skipping out on the real technical achievements that saved the lives of the three astronauts.

I was lucky enough as a adolescent to see this movie in the theaters upon it's initial release. I had always been fascinated by space and traveling in it since I was very young. This movie is an excellent portrayal of the space program and where it has grown. Watching again this time I have the opportunity to appreciate how much work was put into this movie as it is not just a rough or loose adaptation of the events. The movie itself is an adaptation of the book written by the commander of the mission itself. This along with transcripts and radio recordings lead to a very faithful portrayal of the event itself, aside with some creative tension for the audience. Upon further research of how faithful the story is to the real life events, I have that little details that may have been added for drama, did actually happen. According to Jim Lovell, his wife losing her wedding ring down the shower faucet did in fact happen. It is nice to see even a small detail, Gene Kranz's white vest, is also included.

What amazed me about the time surrounding the event was at the time the American people were no longer interested in the space program and only payed attention when things went wrong. With the excitement of the Mercury missions, beating the Soviets, and achieving space travel to almost a routine exercise, it seems as though it would be difficult to lose interest in such a fascinating time. Though we can see this today with the Olympics and their declining ratings and the horrible Columbia disaster that drew the most attention to Nasa in years (except for the unintentionally hilarious tale of Lisa Nuwak) which often begs the question of why the human species would much rather see something spectacular fail than succeeding.

Overall, Apollo 13 is one of my all time favorite space age films, sharing that honor with Star Trek: First Contact and Armageddon, and it helps that despite being tech heavy it does a brilliant job of giving the viewer a window into the very tense time in history where a challenge brought out the best in mankind against all odds inside a vacuum sealed can catapulted into the great beyond. Gene Kranz said it best as “Failure is not an option.”