“FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION:” An Oral History of Apollo 13.
In April 1970, the crew of the Apollo 13 became the most talked-about people on Earth after a malfunction en route to the moon left three astronauts stranded 200,000 miles from home. It was one of the biggest media stories of the decade, with audiences around the world glued to their TV sets and radios.
One of the few people who missed the saga that captivated the world? Ron Howard.
Then a 16-year-old actor best known for The Andy Griffith Show, Howard spent most of the crisis at Vasquez Rocks, 45 mile north Los Angeles, filming a guest spot on the TV Western Gunsmoke. There was no TV reception, and it was hard to get the radio. By the time he emerged back to civilization, astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise had returned to Earth safely.
Twenty-five years later, Howard would more than make up for not following the saga when he directed Apollo 13, a film that tested the limits of filmmaking with its innovative solution for weightlessness (just do it for real!) and put the words, “Houston, we have a problem,” into the cultural lexicon (even if that’s not exactly what Lovell said in real life).
Released in June 1995, the film earned $223.8 million globally and received nine Oscar nominations, winning two.
The film is back in the zeitgeist, celebrating its 30th anniversary with an Imax theatrical run from Sept. 19-25. It comes just weeks after the real-life Lovell died on Aug. 7 at age 97.
I saw Apollo 13 yesterday in that format, and it looks (and, during the Saturn V launch, sounds) spectacular, even with digital effects that were made in the early days of CGI and are only slightly showing their age when blown up on the massive Imax screen.
It’s far less of a knock-your-socks-off experience, but still well worth a look, is the 2019 documentary about Lovell’s previous Apollo mission, which is still on Amazon Prime Video: First to the Moon: Documentary Commemorates Apollo 8, First Flight to Leave Earth Orbit.