When it comes to Ron Howard movies, there is none that I love more than the fantastic space adventure Apollo 13.
Apollo 13
The movie, which told the incredible true story of an Apollo 13 mission that went wrong, was released back in 1995 and is a movie that celebrated its twentieth anniversary this year. Despite being twenty years old, Apollo 13 is a movie that I keep on coming back to over the years and it remains an exciting and emotional watch.
The movie follows Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon as astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert as they blast off into space in Apollo 13. Their mission... was to land on the moon. However an explosion on board leaves the ship with huge damage and they must rely on NASA to find a way to bring them home safely. They have lost the chance to walk on the moon, but now their lives hang in the balance. Will it be triumph or disaster for NASA?
Ron Howard is a filmmaker who has enjoyed a career that has spanned over thirty years and yet, for me, Apollo 13 remains his best movies; it really is one of the greatest space films of all time and has not diminished with age.
The film was inspired by real events and the book Lost Moon by Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger about that ill-fated mission and it is a movie that really does pack a very powerful punch.
No matter how many times you watch this film, the drama of this journey and rescue is just as exciting and terrifying - even though you know how it all ends. Howard ramps up the tension minute by minute as they start to run out of oxygen and there's huge uncertainty about the state of the ship as they plan for re-entry. Are the parachutes blocks of ice? Will the heat shields do their job?
It really is edge of your seat stuff as the lives of three men hang in the balance and there is nothing that Lovell, Haise, and Swigert can do to improve the situation that they find themselves in.
Of course, space looks fantastic and this is a sci-fi drama, but it is very much a human story as it moves from the men in space, to those at NASA trying to come up with a plan to get them home, to the loved ones the astronauts have left behind who can do nothing but watch television and wait.
For me, Hanks is perfectly cast as Lovell, a man who keeps everyone together even in their darkest moments. From start to finish, he is a character who remains focused and strong but Hanks perfectly captures the emotion as he thinks about the family that he has left behind. There is a great chemistry and bond between Hanks, Paxton, and Bacon as they face the darkness of space and the uncertainty together.
Bacon's character Swigert is very much an outsider after being called up as a late replacement and there is a prickly relationship between him and Haise. As the film progresses the trio pull together and, by the end, there is a respect there for the experience that they went though; the three actors portray that change in their relationship so wonderfully. Ed Harris and Gary Sinise are also on top form.
While Apollo 13 is a great sci-fi film that takes the audience into the depths of space, Howard has also delivered a truly riveting human drama that is driven by courage and man's will to succeed.
It is a powerful, exhilarating, and emotional film that has got better and better with age. For me, it is Howard's greatest filmmaking moment and a movie that I just love.
In The Heart of the Sea is released 26th December.
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