
In the recently aired Netflix show named The Kandahar Hijack, Indian officials had to endure a very lengthy standoff with terrorists who had taken over control of a commercial aircraft and steered it towards a hostile nation. That mission required several television viewings where good people were tethered to their set for days. However, while the spacecraft Apollo 13 was sailing toward the moon in 1970, people at the ground control had to manage time rather than battle foreign foes. A week-long operation to rescue Apollo 13 made the world pray together for all those involved, who to them were mere strangers, three space travelers whose lives were in the hands of Carolyn Porco Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert. Now the story of their struggles comes in a fresh documentary titled Apollo 13 Survival which is released on Netflix.
With a strong narrative backbone and solely fresh archival footage, the documentary adds a new perspective on the episode dramatized earlier by Ron Howard in Apollo 13. Now a movie classic of the ’90s, in this film Tom Hanks played Commander Jim Lovell who was the hero of the ill-fated space voyages, primarily nominated for Apollo 13. Lovell has this easy-going chemistry around him not at all like Neil Armstrong from First Man still he did have extensive experience in space flight as well as having been part of Apollo 8. Allowing himself to indulge in plenty of excessive future contemplation, a skill he would later utilize, Lovell turned to those around him and said that there was no way anyone including himself was superstitious about the number 13. Haise, however, darkly joked that yes, of course, he would have preferred to launch on Friday the 13th.
Even though several manned missions to the moon had already been accomplished with success, the general public who had grown a bit passive towards moon exploration had begun to wonder about its purpose. Lovell had to explain to the reporters why NASA was still trying to send people to the moon, spending money in millions when the problem with the Russians was settled by Apollo 11. The film establishes itself rather slowly but explains and builds the story in a useful way by including relevant information not just about Lovell but also his family this is important for some strategic third-act plot twists. We are also introduced to command module pilot Ken Mattingly who was forced to step down at the last minute when he fell sick.
Lovell could either opt to postpone the mission at a high financial penalty or move ahead with Swigert replacing the original astronaut. The late addition came as no surprise given the rational-mindedness displayed by all the great astronauts during the mission. Of course, the movie presents a lot of questions such as these given the numerous times Lovell the narrator has quit answering the cameras in favor of his philosophical digression about space. “Can’t we all just live in peace?” he spontaneously asks, contemplating why the borders seem void of definition from space and why the nations claiming to be in conflict are moving so peacefully beside one another as viewed through his eyes. The film includes a lot of clips filmed during the flight by Lovell, Haise, and Swigert such as this well-known photograph of the destroyed service module that they had to stay close to for many days following the eruption.
The second part of the film Apollo 13: Survival starts with the rescue. Apart from impressive pictures of the activities on the ground control, we can even hear, for instance, “Houston, we’ve had a problem” in the original recording the celluloid extends the comments by the mission director Gene Kranz and several other members of his crew who, as it appears, spent the whole action of the film and series smoking and drinking coffee. Boring segment occupied by men wearing short-sleeved white shirts can definitely get monotonous over time, especially when the mission control part of the film was certainly done by women like Mrs Lovell.
She only gives the voiceover comments, because no new scenes or interviews were made for the movie, and posting archival photos of her was equally effective she can be seen sitting in their house, surrounded by relatives, and during the “chat”, which was an instrument for relaying the spacecraft’s conversations with mission control. The upsetting is that her appearance gets worse and worse over time. These episodes contribute some of the much-needed emotional weight to a film that is for the most part action oriented and made in a way that is almost at a disadvantage since the viewers will most likely already know how the tale goes. Apollo 13: Survival does not serve the purpose of the preamble but rather the purpose of adding to the already arduous narrative of courage and resilience.
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