Apollo 13 Movie Leadership

Introduction This paper will analyze and review two films (Apollo 13 / Paths Of Glory) for leadership and management theories on their storylines. Apollo 13 is a space documentary, drama film (1995) based on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Apollo 13 aborted lunar mission for the moon in 1970. In the movie, the Apollo 13 spacecraft experienced tremendous internal damage shortly after take-off. Recognizing the state of the Apollo 13 spacecraft and fearing for the lives of its astronauts, NASA Mission Control must immediately come up with a plan to return the astronauts safely back to earth. The second film, Paths of Glory, is a war-drama film (1957) which dramatized the anti-war sentiments of soldiers during World War

In the Paths of Glory, we mainly focused on General Mirea and Colonel Dax management styles. General Mireau showed characteristic of an authoritarian leader which described in Kelly’s book that a management style in which the leader is dedicates in policies and procedures. An example of this is that in the movie General Mireau goals is to win the battle and failure is not an option which he ordered all his men to go into battle over Anthill. He direct and contralls all activities without concern of others or participation by the subordinates. For example, in the movie he showed no mercy when start he slap one of the soldier, sent him to another outfit and called him cowered in front of everyone. General Mireau is strict that he cannot tolerate cowardice from any of his soldier under any circumstances and command and at the same time motivate his men to fight with courageously like he did in the past. Another facts about general Mireau is that he watched battle from afar instead of fighting alongside with

Throughout this film, the Apollo 13 mission or participant faced many issues. Despite the many issues such as the oxygen tanks level begin to fail halfway through the mission to the moon, the team play calm, organized, worked as a team to return the astronauts to safety back on the earth. There are many leaders played Apollo 13, but we mainly focused on Jim lovell’s and Gene Kranz characters. Their leaderships are charismatic because they worked with commanders, pilot jack and directors try to accomplish the mission. Even though, they faced many challenges and issues, the team worked together to motivate their subordinates and have trust in each other’s ability to carry out tasks and procedures. Both leaders in the Apollo, work together and others by listening their ideas so that they overcome all challenges they face. In times of crisis, as a leader it’s important to continue to be motivated to lead your team by example. For example, in the movie, Gene said “Failure is not an option”, continuing to motivate the team even though everything seemed to be not going in the right direction they stayed focused on a solution rather than the problem