Despite the events being well known for many decades now, "Apollo 13" succeeds in so many ways at notching up the tension and drama that it's a sure fire sign of mastercraft filmmaking at work. Credit for that goes to Ron Howard, the former "Happy Days" star having become a tour-de-force director and one of the most solid filmmakers of recent times. He may be more in the mold of a populist Spielberg than an arty Kubrick, but the films he turns out are never dull and certainly not as deliberately manipulative on the emotions as Spielberg even if at times he wields a slightly clunkier hand.
To date though "Apollo 13" remains his finest work and a film-going masterpiece. Throughout the 140 minute runtime the action swaps between the astronauts in trouble, the ground crew frantically figuring out a way to help, and the families of the men in danger and their reactions. Combining all this with real life news footage and special effects that to this day remain solid (and enhance the action rather than be the crux of it), "Apollo" never really suffers from slow spots with the suspense always ramped up and the emotional rollercoaster travelled through smooth lows and highs.
Helping it a lot is the way that you as an audience feel so pulled into the narrative that it's almost like you're right up there with these guys trying to figure out a way to get through this. It's almost a 'disaster' movie as such but feels more real than anything that specific genre has produced. Also strong is the adherence to accuracy and avoidance of situations added simply to make the movie more Hollywood friendly. The assorted disasters that take place and tense moments are logical and at no point can one unfamiliar with the real events pick apart the fact from the licensed fiction.
All the small details ranging from astronaut tech talk to the mission control moments are played with authenticity, rarely going overboard. The cast is uniformly superb with not a weak link amongst them although two standouts are Ed Harris as the fiery determined mission controller and Kathleen Quinlan as Hank's wife who faith in her husband holds herself together throughout the disaster. From the score to the editing, everything about the film comes together pitch perfectly and ten years on it hasn't aged a day. A true modern classic of cinema.
