If you want a powerful, masterful rendition of the ill-fated space mission, go and watch Apollo 13 (1995). But the documentary more than half a century after the mission, and two decades after the feature film, is not half bad. Of course, being a documentary, Apollo 13: Survival is much more factual, but the true tale still manages to hold the tension, the high stakes, and the emotional pull of the actual spaceflight, with excellent editing stitching the never-before-seen archival footage and key interviews into an exciting, compelling account. That being said, older viewers that already watched the Tom Hanks drama would likely not find anything new in this film, but Apollo 13: Survival would be a decent documentary to those who have never heard of the spacecraft.
Using original footage and interviews, this documentary tells the nail-biting story of Apollo 13 and the struggle to bring its astronauts safely home.
April 1970. After the US successfully sent men to the moon, more trips were planned to explore certain sites and take geological samples for science. However, one mission turned deadly when an oxygen tank ruptured, leaving the three person crew in a precarious situation.
Given that most of what we know about the incident comes directly from a memoir co-written by Commander James A. Lovell Jr. (since one crew member died, and the other wasn’t interested to talk about it), it makes sense that the documentary is a tad more focused on the commander and his family than the other crew members.
It’s pretty interesting to release this at a time when the world’s scientists are making plans to go to Mars.
