• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

FILM of the week ; Apollo 13 Saturday, BBC1, 8.30pm

Posted on: Saturday, 26 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

TOM HANKS and Kevin Bacon star in this nervy account of an incredible NASA space mission to the Moon that went badly wrong.

Practically ignored by an indifferent TV-watching public, the three astronauts (Bacon, Hanks and Bill Paxton) blast off from Florida with the aim of achieving their dream of walking on the Moon.

But, as we all know, things went badly wrong - giving rise to the now iconic slogan, "Houston, we have a problem."

It's the kind of line that every disaster flick wishes it had.

Hanks, as Jim Lovell, the man who utters the immortal words, turns in a memorably cool performance as the hero at the helm of the stricken space craft - floating through space with a dwindling oxygen supply, a toxic carbon dioxide level and twocolleagues rapidly losing hope, composure, tempers and - very nearly - consciousness.

The fact that just about everyone will be aware of the final outcome of the mission, and the film, isn't the point.

Instead, what matters is the white-knuckle tension garnered by all-American boy Ron Howard from the director's chair.

He successfully managed to meld together chest-beating patriotism, a factual portrayal of a near disaster, and good, solid, old-fashioned entertainment values.

For two-and-a-half hours, ex- Happy Days star Howard guides us through three stories - the astronauts' struggle to survive, the controlled chaos at NASA as experts are forced to come up with unexpected solutions and the trauma faced by the families ofthe men who are up there doing it for the Stars And Stripes.

It might have been trumped for Oscars by Braveheart, but it's still a classic. You'll be gripped.

More News in this Category