"Apollo 13"
Latest Reflections from the Guild
I've seen this movie but it's been a while and I wouldn't want to make a stab at a plot summary without seeing it again. I do know this. Apollo 13 was a great, great movie. To me, it's much more inspiring to see a movie about real people who faced a nearly impossible challenge and yet pushed through a found a solution to save lives. I think we would do much better to make people like Jim Lovell our heros than actors who spend their lives pretending to be something they aren't. (Oops, sorry oops. Just slipped out.)
By the way, besides the nits presented here, there is also a page on NCIEO called 13 Technical Mistakes in Apollo 13. It is a reprint of an article that appeared in the New York Times.
Reflections from the Guild
[Note from Phil: I have not verified these but they sounded good to me!]
John Latchem: "Personally I thought this was a great film and it got robbed at the oscars. So many great moments: The launch, the reentry, the frantic construction of the CO2 filter. So many great lines, too. But aside from some historical inaccuracies there are some production mistakes:"
"When the flight surgeon informs Lovell that Ken Mattingly can't go, the guy at the desk, the Director, gives him two options. He is leaning forward and playing with a pen. The shot cuts to Lovell and back to the director and he is leaning back with his hand on his desk, a position he appeared to be in a few moments earlier before leaning forward. I suppose there is enough time for him to move, it just looks awkward."
"On Swigert's first prime crew simulator run, the crew announces reentryradio blackout. Swigert announces a corridor light and goes to manual. Fred Haise then informs Houston. But aren't they supposed to be under ionization blackout?"
"After the astronauts are in orbit they begin to remove their helmets and gloves. Swigert removes both his thick out gloves and thin inner gloves. Then the shot changes and Swigert is still wearing his thick outer gloves while Haise removes his helmet. Swigert removes his helmet and he is still wearing his thin inner gloves."
"When John Aaron informs Gene Krantz that they have to power down the LEM, Krantz has his hands at his sides. The Shot changes and Krantz begins to bring his hands up and he is holding a pen. As he is bringing his hands up the shot changes back and suddenly his hands are at his sides again."
"Feeling too cold, Lovell floats down to the LEM where Fred Haise is looking at a letter and some pictures. He sees Lovell and begins to put the letter away, but leaves a picture floating. As Lovell grabs the photo, Haiseopens the letter as if just reading it. The next shot shows the letter put away. I detect some fancy editing here."
"Some more fancy editing when they build the CO2 filter. Capcom tells themto cut the tape 3 feet and Haise apparantly understands this to mean 'Jack, tear that piece of tape down the middle lengthwise.'"
"At a press conference, the director responds to a question by saying that's not what he said. He said we're working on it." The guy must have said that off camera because we certainly don't hear it."
"When the service module is jettisoned, the support strutt is not visible initially. This is the large clamp which connected the SM to the Commandmodule. It can be seen when the crew looks at the SM, and it sticks way out there. So why isn't it visible during the initial seperation?"
"This isn't a nit but an observation. At the end, Tom Hanks is seen talking with someone who looks like an Admiral on the Iwo Jima. This admiral is the real Jim Lovell."
"The credits refer to someone known as "Whiz Kid" and "Whiz Kid Mom." Who are these people because I can't find them in the movie?"
Steve Shives: "When Kranz and the rest of the flight controllers are meeting initially to decide what to do now that their astronauts are trapped in a dying spacecraft, Kranz (Ed Harris) draws a circle on the chalk board to represent the earth. The two ends of the lines do not touch--it's a sloppy circle. The shot then cuts away to the mission controllers arguing with Kranz and each other as to the best course of action. When the camera returns to Kranz and the chalkboard, the circle's ends are touching, and it's a much neater drawing. The state of the circle, from sloppy to neater, changes several times during the scene. Later in the film, we see the diagram again--the circle is neater, but by this time some neurotic technician could've fixed it. (Every movie has problems like this. Apollo 13 was a great, great film.)"
Jason Gaston: "I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Lovell shortley before the film came out on video and I, of course, always the diligent nitpicker, asked him if there where any major flubs in the movie. He told me that his corvette was actually blue and that niether him, Fred Hayes, or Jack Swaggert said any of those four-letter- words that were in the movie (apparently, without those words, Apollo 13 would've been a G-rated movie. And [GASP!] we can't have that now, can we?)" (Note from Phil: I am so glad that someone finally confirmed this! I'd heard it but never from what I considered a reliable source. So here we have a case of Hollywood corrupting the speech of nobel and valiant men. Is this as *vile* to anyone else as it is to me? These dweebs spend their lives in fantasy and when they represent men and women who have actually accomplished something in life, they are willing to taint their speech just to improve their bottom line?!? And, as far as the bottom line and the "G" rating goes, last time I heard Disney was doing just fine with "G" rated movies, thank you very much. Okay, okay. Time for me to quit talking about this. I'm already beyond the boundaries of "light-heartedness and good cheer" and the more I think about it . . .)
Joseph Allen: This is a correction in one of your entries from John Latchem: He said that the Admiral on the Iwo Jima is really Jim Lovell, But his rank on his sholder is the rank of captain {Hint: The rank system is the same as Star Trek TNG (yea I love it when I find something that has to do with Star Trek in our everyday lives).
Gordon Davie, Edinburgh, Scotland: Joseph Allen (not the astronaut?) correctly points out that at the end of the film "Apollo 13" we see the real Jim Lovell in captain's uniform welcoming the crew back to Earth. When the film came out on video in the UK, a bonus documentary on the making of the film was included - in it, Jim Lovell says he was asked to make a cameo appearance as an Admiral
but felt he wasn't entitled to do this as he himself only reached the rank of Captain. The shoulder insignia he wears in the film are his own, not props from the costume department. (Note from Phil: Okay, wait a
minute, let me get this straight. Here was a normal human being--albeit a real-live astronaut--who was asked by the Makers-Of-All-Things-Famous-And-The-Creators-Of-All-False-Realities to put in a cameo and the Makers-Of-All-Things-Famous-And-The-Creators-Of-All-False-Realities tried to get him to practice a bit of deceit and he refused?! Now that's refreshing! ;-)
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Copyright 1996 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.