Apollo 13 - The Movie and the Astronauts

Twenty-one years ago today, Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" hit the theaters. Although there are technical errors we SpaceGeeks quibble about, it's still a pretty good flick.

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Many years after the movie, the surviving Apollo 13 astronauts spoke at the Smithsonian.

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One of the films most quoted lines is by Flight Director Gene Kranz, "Failure is not an option!". When Mr. Kranz was on a book tour in the Houston area for his book of the same name, he said that he never said the actual quote. While never spoken, he went on to say that the sentiment was present and was part of the ethos of the mission control team.

Greg

Sy Liebergot's book "Apollo EECOM - Journey of a Lifetime" https://www.apolloeecom.com/ is a pretty good read, and he discusses the making of the movie and meeting Ron and his brother Clint (who played Sy in the movie)...he seemed pretty pleased with the results

Had the pleasure of meeting Jim Lovell at a speaking event after the movie came out. Very down to earth guy.

For those of you that follow the moon landing hoax claims, particularly Bart Sibrell, (the guy Buzz Aldrin decked with a right hook) there is a very funny story involving Jim Lovell and Sibrell.

MaxQ said:

For those of you that follow the moon landing hoax claims, particularly Bart Sibrell, (the guy Buzz Aldrin decked with a right hook) there is a very funny story involving Jim Lovell and Sibrell.

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And?

Peartree said:

And?

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Thought no one would ever ask. LOL :smile:

Apparently, moon hoax proponent/researcher Bart Sibrel was on his mission with his bible, searching out Apollo Astronauts to get them to swear on the bible that they really landed on the moon.
You can see some of the reactions he got on his documentary "Astronauts Gone Wild", sequel to his "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon".

He confronted Neil Armstrong (who refused), John Young (who told him to stick it in his ear) Buzz Aldrin (who decked him with a punch to the face), Bill Anders, Mike Collins, Alan Bean, Gene Cernan, and Ed Mitchell (the later three actually did place their hand on the bible, not that it meant much to Sibrel).

Anyway...when he tracked down Jim Lovell, he asked him the usual question, will you place your hand on the bible, and swear you walked on the moon?

Jim Lovell said no. He couldn't.

Bart, looking astonished, asked him again, clarifying with the response to Mr. Lovell: so you did NOT walk on the moon, is that what you are saying?
Jim Lovell said yes, that's correct.

Bart, now looking like he has the story of the century, is real excited.

Jim Lovell continues, NO - I did NOT walk on the moon. I was on Apollo 13.
We had a little problem on the way, maybe you heard about it.

That lift off scene gives me goose bumps every time I see it. Ron Howard is a genius! Thanks for posting that Greg! :clap:

tmacklin said:

That lift off scene gives me goose bumps every time I see it. Ron Howard is a genius! Thanks for posting that Greg! :clap:

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A better liftoff scene can be found on a DVD titled For All Mankind, a dvd put together from NASA archived footage of all of the Apollo missions, a few minutes of ED White doing his spacewalk are also included. This is the real stuff, not special effects.

Hard to find at a good price anymore, had to buy the last ones at over $20 a dvd. eBay and Amazon have a few of them for sale still, just checked and now there is a Blu-ray version too.

Part of the The Criterion Collection Al Reinert Director/Producer. NASA let him into the video vault, he pieced together footage from the Apollo missions into a 1hour 20 minute DVD. Best watched with the Astronaut Identification turned on to see what mission and astronaut you are viewing at the present scene. It jumps around a little so it is nice to know who is talking.

They did add a little "Hollywood" to a couple of spots. One is when they used footage from the Gemini mission when Ed White spacewalked. Not complaining about that at all!

If you want to watch part of this DVD, HULU TV used to have it available. That was back in 2010 when the brand new DVD only cost $8. I watched it there for the first time and decided to buy the DVD. Since then I have bought several copies, handing them out for birthday and Christmas presents.

Mike

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HFCV5MI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 ?