For this week’s edition of the Film at 11 podcast, I not only introduce one of my sons to Apollo 13 as the movie celebrates its 30th anniversary, I also force myself to rewatch and re-evaluate a picture I think I judged unnecessarily harshly in the past.

I’ve long found myself out of step with both popular and critical consensus on Apollo 13. The first time I saw the movie, frankly, I didn’t like it much at all. I thought it was frustratingly simplistic and schmaltzy. I also just couldn’t get over director Ron Howard’s insistence on using sound effects in the vacuum of outer space, a crime I found unforgivable for a supposed docudrama about real-life events. (We talk about that part a little in the podcast.) For many years, I held onto that opinion and couldn’t let it go.

When I reviewed the movie for a previous publication (linked at the end of this article), I went really hard on it and tore into everything I disliked. Over time, however, I’ve softened in my views and have come to grudgingly acknowledge that my opinion of this movie was colored by my bias against Ron Howard, a filmmaker whose work I’ve long considered very dull and pedestrian. I dislike some of his movies – especially Willow and (later) The Da Vinci Code – so much I let those feelings carry over to everything he’s made, sometimes unfairly.

On this watch, I was careful to avoid prejudicing my son Joseph one way or the other beforehand. I was also finally able to shed some of my own baggage, see the film for what it actually is, and admit that, yeah, Apollo 13 is actually a pretty good movie. How did I not recognize that before?

The sound effects, though… I still hate that part.

Title:	Apollo 13
Year of Release:	1995
Director:	Ron Howard
Watched On:	Fandango at Home (VUDU)
Also Available On:	4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Blu-ray Roku Channel Starz Various VOD rental and purchase platforms

Video Streaming

The real-life crew of Apollo 13 may not have made it to the moon, but Apollo 13 the movie has successfully landed on just about every home video format from VHS and beyond. I last watched the film on the short-lived HD DVD format in 2006. After that, Universal released it on Blu-ray several times (the first in 2010) and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2017. For this viewing, I watched a 4K streaming rental from Fandango at Home, which I must assume comes from the same video master as the UHD disc.

Apollo 13 has always had somewhat schizophrenic photography. Some scenes, especially those inside the space capsule, are stunningly sharp and detailed, while others set on Earth are often soft, gauzy, and grainy. I think director Ron Howard may have gone a little overboard with the “documentary” part of docudrama. If anything, it looks to me like the 4K transfer tries to dial back some of his affectations. The picture is, generally, less heavily grainy than I remember the 1080p HD transfer looking. It may have had a little digital grain management, and perhaps a little sharpening as well. Neither stands out as too obtrusive. Overall, this is a very nice-looking image.

The color and HDR grading really emphasizes the stark contrast of the rocket and the astronauts’ spacesuits against the void of space. Whites are very crisp and blacks are inky. However, other colors back on Earth can run a little muddy or oversaturated at times. The picture seems to have too much orange in it to my eye.

Apollo 13 was shot on the Super 35 film format. The 4K transfer is presented in the movie’s original 1995 theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The later IMAX release in 2002 was reformatted to 1.66:1 (some open-matte on the top and bottom, some cropping from the sides). That version (which also ran about a half-hour shorter due to an IMAX length limitation at the time) was released on DVD, but I don’t believe it’s appeared on any subsequent formats. At the time of this writing, the movie is scheduled for another IMAX re-release at its original 140-minute length to celebrate the 30th anniversary; I don’t know which aspect ratio will be used for that.

Although the physical media 4K Ultra HD disc release of Apollo 13 has an immersive DTS:X soundtrack, the Fandango streaming version is limited to just Dolby Digital 5.1. It’s a pretty good mix, with some nice bass at times and effective use of creaking and groaning noises throughout the space capsule coming from the surround channels. Certain sounds matrix well to the height speakers with Dolby Surround Upmixer engaged in my A/V receiver. On the other hand, the James Horner score sounds a little flat and I found the big rocket launch set-piece underwhelming from an auditory standpoint. I made similar observations in my last watch in 2006, so that may just be the nature of the movie’s sound design – or at least of this 5.1 mix.

Related

• Apollo 13
  • Josh’s grumpy and overly-negative review from 2006
• Ron Howard (director)
  • Willow (1988)
• Tom Hanks
  • Big (1988)
• Bill Paxton
  • Aliens (1986)
  • One False Move (1992)
  • Predator 2 (1990)
  • The Terminator (1984)
  • True Lies (1994)
• Kevin Bacon
  • Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
  • Tremors (1990)
• Ed Harris
  • The Abyss (1989)

Note: All screenshots on this page were captured from a web browser and came out looking much softer than the actual 4K edition streamed to a compatible display. They are used for illustration purposes only.