APOLLO 13 - HD DVD review

From "Apollo 13" to "United 93," my screening selections the past few days seemed to be laced with disaster. On one hand, we have Ron Howard's detailed look at a failed mission to the moon with big names and a big budget. On the other hand, we have the Paul Greengrass helmed low-budget story of a failed attempt by hijackers to crash a commercial airline into an unknown target. There are some hard feelings about whether or not five years is enough time to tell the horrific stories of 9/11. In fact, upon mentioning "Apollo 13," I was told that perhaps those responsible for "United 93" should have been as sensitive as those behind "Apollo 13" and waited for more than two decades to tell the story. I guess they had never heard of the made-for-television film "Houston We've Got A Problem" that was shown over the airwaves just three years after the incident.

Of course, the events of "United 93" ended in tragedy. It is a sad tale of human loss. The "Apollo 13" events ended with heroics and three living astronauts. So my friend's comparison to the timeline and filmmaker's insensitivity is about as invalid as any comparison between the two. The only real connection are that the two films allow us, the American public, to be on the airplane or Apollo spacecraft and get a feeling for what happened on those journeys. Neither film is 100% historically accurate. There are artistic freedoms. There are over dramatizations. But even after its release more than ten years ago and with its latest revival on HD-DVD, "Apollo 13" is an important film. Those of us in our twenties and thirties can be educated about the events of the Apollo 13 mission and this film can serve as record for many more twenty years down the road. We are reminded of the heroics and the danger of those missions by the Ron Howard production, just as we are reminded by the human loss in "United 93."

Tom Hanks portrays astronaut Jim Lovell. Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris join this ensemble cast as other key members of the Apollo 13 retelling. Paxton takes the role of Fred Haise and joining them in the LM is Kevin Bacon as Jack Swigert. Kathleen Quinlan portrays Marilyn Lovell. Gary Sinise assumes the role of grounded astronaut Ken Mattingly and Ed Harris is brilliant as always as Gene Kranz. Working with the Lovell's, Hanks does a good job of portraying Jim Lovell. He and Ron Howard have a wonderful chemistry and a Hanks/Howard film is almost guaranteed to be good. Paxton, Sinise and Harris are among my favorite actors. I remember being thrilled to see them together in one picture. Paxton and Sinise are solid actors that embody the American persona. I'd watch a two hour film about Ed Harris reading "Encyclopedia Brown" stories. He is brilliant as Gene Kranz and looks really good with hair. Kevin Bacon is, well, Kevin Bacon. His performance is good, but I just view the character as "Kevin Bacon" and not Jack Swigert. I really can't tell you exactly why, but it is hard to buy into his character.

For those unfamiliar with the story of "Apollo 13," on April 13th, 1970, astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise had completed a non-broadcasted television relay from their moon-bound spaceship when Mission Control asked them to stir their cryo tanks. Swigert's words were restated by Jim Lovell. "Houston, we've had a problem." The cryo tank stirring caused an explosion and the Apollo 13 craft was crippled. Their trip to the moon was scrapped and now Mission Control was faced with an impossible task – the crew lacked the clean oxygen and power for the return trip home. They had to engineer some solutions with lightning speed and perfect precision to bring the crippled craft and her three astronauts home. The television networks deemed the initial broadcast not eventful enough to televise, but with the crew facing almost certain death, it became the only story on television.

Lovell, Haise and Swigert held their calm. In fact, some of the liberties taken with the story was an outburst by Hanks' portrayed Lovell. This was done to ‘spice-up' the story and the truth is that the three men were so stoic during this crisis, that it would have made for a boring story. Amazing how they were able to keep their calm the entire time. Down on the ground, Gene Kranz was scrambling to get every problem solved and lead Mission Control to bring Apollo 13 home. Ed Harris is brilliant here. The inspiration for Harris came from watching a clip taken of Gene Kranz years later where he teared up when remembering the events of Apollo 13. Some of the problems that needed solved was the air scrubbers for the Landing Module were shaped differently than that of the capsule. A solution needed found to fit the square filter into a round hole. It was solved. The module did not have enough power to land. A solution needed to be found to bring the computers back up without draining all remaining power. Many other issues threatened the plight of the Apollo spacecraft and somehow, they were all resolved. Somehow, the crew returned home.

"Apollo 13" is not a great film, but it is a good film. With an incredible cast and an attention to detail, the film honors the men whose story it tells. A large number of scenes were filmed on NASA's "Vomit Comet," a C-135 aircraft that has been modified to help test weightlessness. The aircraft flies in a parabolic pattern and routinely dives to earth to allow its passengers a freefall state where weightlessness is simulated. Ron Howard states that he is not sure of how the film would have turned out if they had used wires. Not many actors would submit themselves to hours upon hours on the "Vomit Comet" to make a film. Somewhere between 500 and 600 parabolics were made during a period of 13 days.

It is important to remember that it is a film. A lot of artistic freedoms were made. Hanks states "Houston, we have a problem." Swigert says "Okay Houston, we've had a problem here" and Lovell restated "Houston, we've had a problem." Ken Mattingly has a larger role in Ron Howard's retelling of the story than he had in real life. Do these inaccuracies really make a difference? No. This is a film based upon the Apollo 13 story. It is not a documentary about the Apollo 13. Ron Howard has created a good film that pays homage to the men and women whose lives were affected by the aborted trip to the moon. He made what choices he thought would make for an entertaining picture. You get a very good idea of what effort and emotion went into the crisis.

Video:
My ‘high-watermark' comparison for "Apollo 13" is against the original Universal Collector's Edition release. I did not see much reason to purchase the more recent 10th Anniversary Edition of the film, though I had some curiosity in the IMAX version contained with that release. The original DVD was presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The 2.35:1 ratio is preserved here on the HD-DVD as well. From comparing the original 1998 release to this new 2006 HD-DVD shows a stark comparison between the formats. Colors are far superior on the HD disc. Film definition is greatly improved. The space scenes are gorgeous. The increased black levels are noticeably improved with the HD title and very visible during starscape moments (A side note: the Toshiba HD-DVD player far outperformed my Pioneer Elite unit in black level performance just comparing the original release on both players). The Earth's glow looks warm and authentic when compared to the originals more ‘hazy' blur.

"Apollo 13" is now over a decade old and the second oldest title on the format ("Goodfellas" is six years older) and holds up surprisingly well in the High-Definition era. The film's image may not be as sharp as "Serenity" or "Phantom of the Opera," but the night and day difference against SD is readily apparent. The liftoff of Apollo 13 shows the warmth of the oranges and the cold confines of deep space showcase how well the format handles the cooler colors. "Apollo 13" is a great looking movie. Much of the film takes place in either the small confines of the Apollo spacecraft or the rows of manpower and machine at Mission Control. The vistas of outerspace a few handful of outside locations serve to add variety to the film, but the film could take place entirely in the Apollo craft and still look great. Thanks to HD-DVD, the film looks better than ever.

Sound:
Still saddled with some hardware issues, my system is taking the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix and pretending it is a DTS 5.1 soundtrack. I have procured a solution to connect the Toshiba DVD-A1 to the six analog inputs on my receiver via a switchbox, but the couple hundred dollars of cables to purchase guarantees that "Apollo 13" will still be heard in pseudo-DD Plus. Ah, the pains of a new technology. Regardless, "Apollo 13" still packs a wallop when it needs to. A few moments stand out in "Apollo 13," the initial liftoff sequence is a subwoofer rumbler and the explosion that cripples the craft is another audible standout. They sound good. However, when compared to the original DVD, there isn't much of a difference. Dialogue does come across a little cleaner on the HD transfer and bass is deeper, but for the most part there is not a lot of difference. Some of this could be attributed to the oddity of communication between the HD-DVD player and my receiver that is allowing the digital track to be used as a DTS track, but a quick comparison of "Doom" between HD-DVD and standard DVD showed more improvement. Perhaps the age of the film has something to do with the similarities. Regardless, no real complaints against the soundtrack, but it is far from being something to get excited about.

Extras:
As is the case with all of the initial HD-DVD releases, "Apollo 13" is a port of the previous standard DVD edition. Namely, the Anniversary edition DVD – minus the shorter 1.66:1 IMAX cut of the film. There are a large number of supplements to be found, including some that appear on both the original DVD and the Anniversary disc. It is amazing that this 140 minute long film can be squeezed on a single layer with a couple hours worth of supplements and dual commentary tracks. I'm a giddy schoolboy when it comes to thinking of what the future holds for this format.

The major supplements include two running commentary tracks and a few nice commentaries. The first commentary track stars Opie, himself – Ron Howard. Ron Howard does a good job with this commentary track. He talks through most of the film's long running time and offers up a lot of good information. The second track features the real life Lovells, Jim and Marilyn. They offer an authentic recount of the true events and point out some of the artistic choices made by Ron Howard. Both tracks are a good listen and are have appeared on the original DVD, Anniversary disc and now on the HD-DVD. The nearly hour long "Triumph of Apollo 13" also makes a return journey and is included here. This documentary features most of the principal players in the film and many of those that were involved in the actual crisis. The documentary and commentary tracks are nice inclusions, though I did not spend much time with them here after sitting through them for the original DVD. A few items were missing from the original disc. These included the text and menu based supplements and the theatrical trailer. I miss the trailer, but never got much into the menu supplements. Also missing is the ‘Easter Egg' featuring the film's theatrical score in its entirety.

A few supplements appeared previously on the Anniversary DVD, but not the original release. The most significant of these is the 45 minute long documentary, "Conquering Space: The Moon and Beyond." Focusing on the history of the great space race between the cosmonauts and the astronauts, the documentary features many interviews about Apollo 13 and the space race. A second commentary carried over from the Anniversary disc is the 15 minute long "Lucky 13: The Astronauts Story." This is a fairly recent set of inverviews with the three Apollo 13 astronauts and includes a teary-eyed Gene Kranz. Did you know that Jim Lovell originally thought Kevin Costner would have been a good pick to portray him? Yup.

Parting Thoughts:
"Apollo 13" is a movie I have always enjoyed. It features some of my absolute favorite actors, all in one film. Kudos go out to Universal for bringing a decade old classic to the format. It is nice to know we won't initially be bombarded by just the latest releases while HD-DVD is in its infancy. The transfer of "Apollo 13" simply destroys the original 1998 DVD release in visual quality. It is not even close. The sound quality is good, but only a marginal improvement. Still, this may be due to a hardware issue surrounding the Toshiba player. I will update this review is something changes after the issue is resolved. The features are carried over from the Anniversary edition, but notable omissions include the IMAX version of the film and the film's isolated soundtrack, which was a poorly hidden easter egg on previous releases.

When compared to the current batch of films, I have to say that "Apollo 13" is my best all-around recommendation. The film is only trumped visually by "Phantom of the Opera." Only "Serenity" sounds better. The movie is the best overall story of the DVD releases, though I guess you could argue "Million Dollar Baby." However, there are only eight titles currently out and the format is young. If you are an early adopter, then I don't see any reason why you shouldn't own "Apollo 13."