Wednesday, January 20, 2010

January 19, 2010

Apollo 13 (1993)
#57 on my Top 100 List
There is a difference between emotionally charged and emotionally manipulating. Some directors (for instance, Michael Bay) are really great at blowing things up, but rely on emotional manipulation to get a response from audiences. Ron Howard doesn't need to do that. The last fifteen minutes of this movie are so tense that the audience's nerves are almost completely frayed. The release that comes at the end is a completely emotional release - no manipulation needed. Of course, it helps that this is a true story. I think one of the strengths of the film is that it focuses equally on the astronauts stuck in the dead Apollo 13 capsule in space and on the team of people in Mission Control working around the clock to bring them home alive. Both sides of the story are important and they create two different dramatic environments. The sound effects in this movie I found particularly effective (so, by the way, did the Academy) and this is one of James Horner's better scores - it doesn't sound like everything else he's ever written.
My Netflix rating: 5 stars

1 comment:

  1. This is one of the best movies of all time! The story is told very well, and, I agree with you, that the emotionality of it was portrayed as it really was - totally gripping the world, as well as (obviously) those directly involved.

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