Ron Howard’s riveting, accurate account of the Apollo 13 emergency is best remembered for the line uttered by the movie’s marquee astronaut face, Tom Hanks: “Houston, we have a problem.”
But the truly inspiring heart of the movie flows from a line growled by Ed Harris, as he seemed to embody America’s self-image in the gruffly capable flight director Gene Kranz. The Apollo 13 spacecraft has sprung deadly leaks, and all of the Houston control center is in a panic, ready to give in to despair.
“Let’s work the problem, people,” Kranz orders. “Let’s not make things worse by guessing.”
And so the astronauts, led by Hanks as star-crossed team leader Jim Lovell, and the NASA brainiacs get down to work. They madly scribble trajectory formulas on chalkboards, they rebuild electrical circuits for maximum power at minimum drain, and they make air filters out of athletic socks. Howard uses slick editing and the talents of his deep cast to make the mundane science fascinating.
Slowly but surely, our beleaguered heroes extract triumph from the jaws of disaster. It might all seem a bit corny if it weren’t all true – Lovell and other NASA officials familiar with the movie approved the drama and the science employed by Howard, allowing for a few composite characters and a few lines altered to make better sound bites.
The lessons of “Apollo 13” may be obvious, but there are plenty of things to talk about with your kids. How insight can come from failure as well as success, for example. Or that there’s more than one dangerous profession that leaves children waiting for parents to return home safely – astronaut, police officer, soldier.
And how “working the problem” passes the time far better than merely worrying about the problem. “Apollo 13” is a portrait of a nation reminding itself how to get things done.
Each Tuesday, Michael Booth uncovers a movie gem for families in search of rewarding entertainment. Reach him at mbooth@denverpost.com.
