Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Apollo 13 [Blu-ray]

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but decided to duplicate the room on a Hollywood sound stage to give him better control over lighting and camera angles

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 4, 2016

I worked at the Johnson Space Center when the Apollo 13 movie was originally released. The director, Ron Howard, considered filming in the Apollo Mission Control Center (MCC), but decided to duplicate the room on a Hollywood sound stage to give him better control over lighting and camera angles. The set designers extensively photographed the MCC and duplicated it down to the last detail including stenciled lettering on the walls, and the layout of the Ford Aerospace video display consoles. It is virtually impossible to tell that the move WAS NOT shot in the actual MCC. The details that were changed in the movie were for the most part insignificant to the story. Large teams of people working behind the scenes on the actual Apollo 13 mission were consolidated down to a few characters in the movie. The flight controllers work rotating shifts, yet only the primary team was depicted in the movie. Adding the other flight control shifts would have been more accurate, but could have been confusing. Sacrifices need to be made to squeeze nearly 6 days of mission in to 2 hours.

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Mahug

Really I thought this was about going to the moon.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 19, 2020

Ok, yes they go to the moon, but it focuses on other things a lot more than the mission. It starts with the captain of Apollo 13 watching the first man on the moon, I sniped most of the party seen so I can not tell you if there is anything filthy in that seen. (I am sure there was once I watched a little more of the movie). Right after this I skipped a seen when the main carter was kissing his wife. I am not really like kissing (I am a male what do you expect?) but I can deal with it, but he seemed to be getting a bit too much into it to the point it was disturbing.

Well me an my family thought it was smoothing out, but then it shows a guy who was not clothed with his wife with only a towel badly covering herself. (What is the point about this move about again? Oh the moon right? Then why are we not showing that more?)

Well we skipped a good portion of the movie, hoping when they got into space it would start to be more interesting. No. It kept going to dramatic things, and when the move showed some day taking a shower we turned it off. What does some woman in a shower have to do with going to the moon?

All in all, going to the moon was in the background for most of the movie and the main focus was on adult themes. Don't know if it got any better, and I did not bother.

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From the United States

GARY

Good buy

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 30, 2022

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DVD of good quality this film is both entertainment and documentary I was wittiness to the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo era and these events. This film conveys the feel of time, place and culture of America in those times better than any other account I am aware of.

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A wonderful movie

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 5, 2022

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This movie is a dramatization of the very real events of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission that was supposed to land astronauts on the moon for the third time. Of course, on the way to the moon, there was an explosion that caused the oxygen tanks to leak out into space, endangering the life of the crew, at which point the mission became a scramble to get the crew back to Earth safely.

The movie was directed by Ron Howard and stars Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell, the mission commander of Apollo 13. The movie also starred Kevin Bacon as Apollo 13 backup Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert, Bill Paxton as Apollo 13 Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise, Ed Harris as White Team Flight Director Gene Kranz, and Gary Sinise as Apollo 13 prime Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly who was supposed to be the pilot on the mission but was scrubbed and replaced with Swigert. The movie is a pretty standard docudrama. Howard, who is a big space enthusiast, was a stickler for getting the technical details correct. While he did change some things for dramatic effect, including the most famous line from the movie, "Houston, we have a problem" (Lovell really said "Houston, we've had a problem"), much of what was shown in the movie happened the way it did in real life. The movie was adapted from Lovell's book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, and he served as a consultant on the movie.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great in HD. The extras include two different commentary tracks, one by Ron Howard, and one with Jim and Marilyn Lovell. There is also a one-hour making-of documentary, a 48 minute TV special that discussed the space race between the USA and the Soviet Union, and a twelve-minute segment from the show Dateline about the movie. So, a lot of bonus material for those who like going through the extras.

Overall, the movie is wonderful. It is well written and very well acted, with Hanks and Sinise as the standouts (but the entire cast does a great job). While it is a period piece, and it is made to look as much as possible as things looked at the time of the mission, the movie is timeless and holds up even twenty-plus years after it was made. Whether you are interested in the movie because you are a fan of Ron Howard or one or more of the actors, are into the history of the space program, or are just looking for a good drama to watch, I highly recommend this.

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SchmidtD

One of humanity's great stories

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 13, 2022

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Excellent coverage of an historical event. This is one of humanity's great shared stories. One note: it's a little more adult than I remembered from the first time I saw the film, so take PG13 seriously for Apollo 13.

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Steven Gerrard OBE

Houston, we have a problem….

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 14, 2022

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Excellent, brilliant. What more can I say?

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Montana

EXCELLENT

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 1, 2022

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REALLY GOOD MOVIE, HIGHLYT RECOMMEND, ACTING WAS SUPER AND HISTORICALLY CORRECCT AND ENLIGHTENING.

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Janice aboard Seaweed

Engrossing, Excellent, Awesome & Inspiring!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 10, 2005

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We really enjoyed this DVD... it's one of our "keepers" and definitely worth owning and viewing regularly -- it will remind you (as it has our family) that is is so very good to be born/raised/live in this country.

It begins with a voiceover by Walter Cronkite (and yes, our announcer is the real thing!) which introduces us to the heroes as they walk across the gantry, and pays tribute to the three we lost in that disastrous fire on the launch-pad....

The movie follows those fateful days (beginning in pre-launch) and then in orbit, and it focuses on the united effort in bringing our boys home. These men are so smart -- all of them (not just in space but at Mission Control) and is a realistic view of the times. You'll see the old Izod shirts (remember the Alligators?) and Corvettes, Mission Control (hey, they smoke -- this was not a purified/Politically Corrected re-enactment/revision of truth)... I appreciated that.

Oh, and it's not all drama. There are moments of smiles, and it's not too intense excluding the JOYOUS moment when we hear them respond after four minutes coming through the atmosphere.... Still, I wouldn't suggest youngsters under age eight view it alone.

[Note: our family is protective of our children and they have not been raised on a diet of broadcast television. Yours may be used to intense programming -- please use your own judgment. There is nothing bloody-gruesome in the movie, nor in the commentary. That said, you will CARE DEEPLY about all the people you see.]

One more little (out of sequence) note: The end has Tom Hanks (who plays Jim Lovell) narrating a mini catch-up to present of the whole story. We learn what happens to the individuals in the movie. It's a wonderful "wrap" to an amazing six days in space.

If we are going to do a docu-drama, one might also suggest that future writers/directors view this one to get an idea that they public will spend perfectly good money on QUALITY shows that are truthful, accurate and not hack-jobs. (End mini-rant!)

I found the scenes compelling and recall the "lump in throat" of those days. To me though, seeing the families perspective broadened the effect. Oh, and Mrs. Lovell is a force to be reckoned with -- I liked her a lot! She's a classy lady.

Minor Quibbles: In two places there are swear words (Mrs. Lovell -- who in the commentary states she doesn't "talk like that" -- when discovering the magnitude of Jim's problems swears... I thought that extraneous. Also, in another section one of the astronauts uses a bad word (appropriate maybe, but basically, unnecessary).

The Best Stuff: After the movie we are provided with a mini-movie on how they filmed it all. NASA cooperated and many of the scenes were filmed in those planes that "deliberately plunge toward the earth" so the actors/film-makers/lighting guys et al were weightless. One of the brave actors in particular didn't want his testosterone questioned but... ;)

I particularly enjoyed the interviews... you could really see how much the whole crew wanted this to be an *excellent* movie, one to last through the ages. It's brought out that the movie will be (at some point in history) a look back on the whole era. We (the USofA) have some incredible individuals to be proud of... this is perhaps one of the best patriotic movies I have ever seen -- notwithstanding war epics. It makes me glad to be an American.

Okay, so you also see the real gents appearing on the Johnny Carson Show too. One more thing -- at the very end of the movie you see Jim Lovell -- he's the Captain of the ship that picks up the astronaut. His wife appears once too, but don't blink! (grin)

Also, the Bonus Materials include two voice-over commentaries. The first is made by Director Ron Howard (you know, he's good -- very good!) and tells inside things about the creation of this movie. I enjoyed it.

The best Commentary though was done by Mr. and Mrs. Lovell -- ah, and Ron -- that con-trail isn't supposed to be there. (winks)

All in all, this is one of our favorites... I'd go so far as to suggest you Pay Retail, and maybe even opt for First Class shipping so you won't have to wait. It is that good!

3 people found this helpful

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Ed Keith

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 19, 2022

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GottaDoSumptin

"Houston, we have a problem." – (#50) AFI's 100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 23, 2021

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"A powerful story, one of the year's best films, told with great clarity and remarkable technical detail, and acted without pumped-up histrionics." – Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (The film went on to receive nine Academy Award nominations including Best Picture; congrats, Ron Howard, job well done.)

It’s hard to believe this global drama occurred. No doubt the screenwriters took some poetic license with the script, however, knowing that this was a story about the 7th crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the 3rd meant to land on the Moon, does not make it any less extraordinary. I remember seeing the successful splashdown on television in 1970. I don’t believe it’s taken me this long to watch the movie for the first time.

Just when you think you’ve planned for every contingency, something new crops up. All that is left now is trial and error… and error equals death.

A round of applause to the actors who portrayed their characters realistically: Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell (film based on Lovell’s book “Lost Moon”), Kevin Bacon as Jack Swigert, and Bill Paxton as Fred Haise; as well as the supporting cast featuring Gary Sinise as Ken Mattingly and Ed Harris as Gene Kranz at Mission Control; and, last but not least, Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn, Jim Lovell's wife, who intuitively understood the peril better than anyone else but all she could do was wait, be strong, and try to hold herself and her kids together, in addition to dealing w/the media circus.

The film’s duration is 2 hours, 20 minutes, which flew by. To the three astronauts, this was not a movie – it was real-time – over seven days.

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Robert Stone

Terrific Movie, Slightly Flawed Blu-Ray Presentation

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 23, 2010

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Content / Quality of Movie: ***** (wish it went higher)
Presentation: *** (see below)

If you are reading this you likely have already seen Apollo 13, perhaps many times, and are looking for information on the Blu-Ray release (and may be tired of wading through reviews of the DVD version - Amazon really should separate DVD and Blu-Ray reviews but that is another rant for another day). See next paragraph for the technical details but I must first sing the praises of this wonderful film. This has always been one of my favorites. Ron Howard's direction is near-perfect and the cast is terrific. The movie does a wonderful job of almost moving the viewer back in time to when the events of that ill-fated mission occurred. As one of the characters notes this really was NASA's finest hour and this movie puts you squarely in the middle of it - both in that fragile ship out in space and on the ground in mission control. This is one of those films that after watching it you expect to turn on the TV and see updates about the ongoing mission - it is that immersive. My favorite extra feature is the commentary track by the director. I don't often watch a whole movie through with commentary track on but this one is well worth it, offering insights into Howard's direction style which meshed perfectly with the subject matter of this film. Almost all the actors in the movie got to know the people they were portraying and Howard was open to changes in dialogue to add authenticity to the production. This I think allowed the actors to really immerse themselves in their roles and that additional measure of commitment shows through in every scene. Can you imagine Hitchcock (also one of my favorites) directing this film? His style would not have been nearly as effective as Ron's, though there might well have been more intrigue and perhaps one or two of the mission control people would have gone missing. Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind seeing that version at all, either. Anyway, digital special effects are also very well done but were not allowed to detract from the story. I am amazed that it was possible to find so many varied angles to allow the cramped command and lunar modules to at once be confining but not claustrophobic - a really wonderful bit of cinematography. All in all, in my opinion one of the best films made in the last 50 years - heck, one of the best ever.

Now about the presentation. Picture and sound quality to me were fantastic (though I have never seen the HD-DVD version which another reviewer feels was better.) Extra features include the above-mentioned director's narration which is terrific. The movie played well (eventually) on my Sony player - and there's the rub as they say. I was amazed at how long the load process was, at least a couple minutes then the question of what language to select, a couple more minutes then the question of whether or not I want to post comments on it to my Facebook site or some such - NO I JUST WANT TO WATCH THE MOVIE ALREADY!! When the menu screen finally arrives over on the right is an animated ad for a current release - so that is obviously what was taking so long to load. I shudder to think how long it would have taken over a DSL or (gulp) a dial-up connection. I do hope they remedy this with a future release without so much wait time but in the end it was a "small price to pay" to watch this great film.

3 people found this helpful

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Gibson99

Great movie, excellent additional content

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 12, 2022

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Neat to see interviews and behind the scenes, and the 20 year retrospective was pretty nifty too.

One person found this helpful

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Apollo 13 [Blu-ray]

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