Apollo 13; The Movie.

[Rumpus]

I love this movie. I have seen it countless times over the years and I watched it again last night. My pet peeve? How Jack Swigert was portrayed. There are several examples but he is portrayed as irritating, and somewhat negatively through out the movie. The "I wish you were here", to Mattingly conveying a bitter relationship between the two. The "blame" for stirring the oxygen, the almost defensive disposition he was given in parts of the film. I read "Lost Moon" Jim Lovell's book, and I never got the impression of tension between any of the key astronauts. I often wondered if it was because he was deceased and they had to simply inject more human drama into the film, as if there wasn't enough. Or because the actors and directors couldn't get to meet him. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Grog]

Also love movie and feel the same way. I agree with the idea that it was to insert a bit of drama into the movie and it's easier to pick on a dead man. The one Swigert scene that really irks me is when he's docking the CSM with the LEM after entering Earth orbit and guys in Mission control are acting as if he might not be able to do it. If they didn't have confidence that he could do it, they most likely wouldn't have had him replace Mattingly to begin with.

 

[Rumpus]

Also love movie and feel the same way. I agree with the idea that it was to insert a bit of drama into the movie and it's easier to pick on a dead man. The one Swigert scene that really irks me is when he's docking the CSM with the LEM after entering Earth orbit and guys in Mission control are acting as if he might not be able to do it. If they didn't have confidence that he could do it, they most likely wouldn't have had him replace Mattingly to begin with.

Yes, that is another good example. It is impossible for me to believe that the "second team at bat" is second rate. The astronaut corps is so competitive that they all are top notch. Also, the way that Haise is portrayed; as emotional. That wasn't in Lost Moon either. Tom Hank's Jim Lovell looks good all the way through, but they were all fantastic in real life. We didn't need a negative portrayal of any of them.

 

[sandramaac]

....i'd say a bit of poetic license...................and with any story there is always the antagonist

 

[ZephyrHawk]

....i'd say a bit of poetic license...................and with any story there is always the antagonist

Yep, this happens in just about any historical book translated into movie format. Like in Secretariat. Pancho Martin may have been a brash sort of guy, but he was never the bully they portrayed him in the movie. And as a traditionally minded man of Cuban descent, he would never have treated Penny Tweedy with anything but the utmost respect.

 

[Grog]

Yes, that is another good example. It is impossible for me to believe that the "second team at bat" is second rate.

Yet it's almost portrayed as such. The backup crews were the primaries further down the chain and therefore were every bit as good as the crew they might have to step in for. In this case the back up for Apollo 13 was the primary for Apollo 16. Swigert didn't so much replace Mattingly as simply switched places on their primary assignments.

 

[ZuZugal]

Did you know that Tom Hanks shakes hands with the real Jim Lovell at the end of the movie (when he is doing the narration)? I always thought that was very cool.

And this is from Wiki about the movie:
When Jack Swigert is getting ready to dock with the LM, a concerned NASA technician says, "If Swigert can't dock this thing, we don't have a mission." Lovell and Haise also seem worried. In his DVD commentary, the real Jim Lovell says that if Swigert had been unable to dock with the LEM, he or Haise could have done it. He also says that Swigert was a well-trained Command Module pilot and that no one was really worried about whether he was up to the job, but he admitted that it made a nice sub-plot for the film.