“APOLLO 13: SURVIVAL” ON NETFLIX TELLS THE FAMOUS NASA STORY WITHOUT ACTORS

Space has long been the final frontier in TV, movies, and even in documentaries. The human fascination with space is a long one with some being more interested than others, but we all wonder what it will take to get further and learn more. In the 1960s the dream was a reality with the Apollo missions to be the first country to get to the moon. We all know about the success and Neil Armstrong’s famous quote, but there were many failures along the way that get glossed over at times. One of NASA’s biggest successes was during one of its biggest failures when the Apollo 13 mission became legend. After an explosion on the craft Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert had to find a way to survive a trip back home with the help of NASA that was thousands of miles away. In 1995 Hollywood decided to tell the story with Tom Hanks playing Lovell with Ron Howard as the director and called it Apollo 13. Pretty simple. Now, Netflix has the documentary version in Apollo 13: Survival where Hollywood isn’t used at all.

In Survival we are introduced to all the major players in the mission simply by hearing their real voices as narrators. Marilyn Lovell is the main voice you hear as watch archived footage from the 13 mission with a few other videos from other missions to fill in gaps. Along with her you hear from every other person associated with the mission through archival footage and recordings. You get to see the actual pictures of the ship after they detach from it and can see the damage the explosion caused. It’s not special effects that you’re viewing, it’s the real thing. You get to follow along in the mission and all the pitfalls that jumped up during the fateful mission.

I only have one issue with this documentary and that is that I only learned one new thing. We’ve been misquoting Lovell for decades. The actual quote made by him after the explosion was, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Most just say “we have”. Other than that we are shown everything that Ron Howard showed us back in 1995. The movie never skipped any moments and seemed to nail them almost perfectly. Survival is fascinating in that you’re hearing the real people talk about the incident and seeing the real video and footage in the spacecraft. See it for that reason alone. However, if you’re hoping to learn more than you already learned from seeing the film don’t expect much. That comment though just shows how much thought and respect Howard gave to the incident to not give it almost no Hollywood spin. Watch both and do your own comparison as they are both great historical films.