Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Saw it twice in theaters when it came out.
I never do that, but somehow this one
kinda grabbed me and didn't let go, the
journey almost lost in space before we
knew the first thing about space, and
it was mysticmagical at times, at least
the director seemed to grasp that as he
recreated a tale of miracle onscreen
in spite of Hollywood; even Jim Lovell
himself, the man who hid Earth behind
his thumb, said it was pretty good.

The finest geek movie ever made. Those are my people - the chubby bespectacled nerds in white short-sleeved shirts & skinny black ties - they're the ones who got the crew home. And I never fail to tear up when Ed Harris, knotting his own tie preparatory to a very iffy re-entry, responds to a remark about what a disaster history will brand the mission by saying, "I believe this will be our finest hour." Damn... Balls of steel...

(pauses to wipe eyes)

A few others I have to rewatch periodically:

The Great Escape (just try getting the theme out of your head)
Bullitt (Greatest.Car Chase.Ever. And Lalo Schifrin's score is top-notch.)
Monty Python & The Holy Grail (inspired silliness, & memes quotable to this day)
S1E3 of "Mission: Impossible", Operation Rogash (blew me away when I was 16)

Honorable Mention: Manchurian Candidate, The Babadook, The Call of Cthulhu, Marathon Man... probably others...

Yeah, I usually don't do Hollywood, but this flick is still one of my faves. Have you watched the commentary by Jim and Marylin Lovell? Well worth it. Among other things, interesting to hear what he said about the course correction burn, and how the Grumman guy got a "bad rap" in the film...

Haven't seen the commentary - I only have the movie on VHS (yeah, I still got a rack full of those). I do have "The Right Stuff" and Hanks' 12-part series "From the Earth to the Moon" on DVD. I've also recently re-read Lovell's book "Lost Moon".

There were a lot of little inaccuracies in the movie, most of which were there only to make the story more filmable. The tensions between Haise & Swigert, for instance - theatrical license. The reason for Shepard et al getting bumped from the mission ("Al Shepard's ear infection has flared up again!") - not so. According to the rules of the crew rotation, 13 was supposed to have gone to Gordon Cooper, Don Eisle, & Ed Mitchell, because they'd been the backup for Apollo 10. But Cooper had done such a lackadaisical job, and Eisle's insubordination on 7 put them in management's crosshairs, and when Shepard came back on line & asked for a mission, Deke offered him 13. But upper management felt Shepard had been out of the loop too long, and suggested giving them 14 instead, to which Lovell had already been assigned.

Lovell was the most experienced space flyer to date, and Shepard the least - ironic that one got to walk on the moon, & the other didn't....

Interesting. And the simulator scenes with Mattingly weren't entirely accurate either-- in reality the simulator was used to verify existing procedures, according to the real Mattingly (2001 interview).

(Next time you watch the movie, look for cameos by the Lovells-- Marilyn at the launch, just below the actress playing her, and Captain Jim congratulating Hanks after splashdown.)