Apollo 13 Analysis

The movie Apollo 13 is based on the actual Apollo 13 mission in April 11, 1970 that was just a routine mission to the moon that went horribly wrong. However, the movie is overall historically inaccurate, primarily due to the false facts it ultimately portrays about the moon and the life depending procedures they needed to perform.

In the movie Apollo 13 the central focus in the beginning of the movie was to go to the moon and in the meantime encountered the threatening situation to go around the moon in order for the crew to arrive to earth safely; however, throughout the film it presented false depictions of the moon, such as its phases and what is known about the far side of the moon. Since the movie’s spotlight was on Apollo 13’s landing

Following the incorrect moon phases, is what the “far side of the moon”,also known as the “darkside of the moon”, actually is; while there may be narrow knowledge of the moon’s far side it most definitely is not always dark on that side. The little knowledge of the far side of the moon in the movie can be comprehended in the scene where the crew is about to lose connection with Earth--due to entering the far side of the moon-- and as soon as they are about to encounter it the actor playing Jim Lovell states, “we’re about to enter the dark side of the moon,” then immediately it becomes very dark in the spacecraft. Even though, the phrase “dark side of the moon” typically provides the false rational that it is dark, but was proven by Luna 3 in 1959

Moreover, the film made it appear as if the vital procedures performed were wholly new to everyone, it dramatized this for the reason to communicate to the public about how hard they had to work on determining exactly what to do. For instance, when the explosion of the oxygen tanks occurred and caused damage to the Carbon Dioxide levels everyone had to quickly develop a procedure of what the crew needs to do, or else the crew would not survive. As a result, came the well-known “let’s build a filter scene”, where the on-duty engineers gathered all the materials that the crew retained on the spacecraft and dumped it on a table to ultimately make the necessary carbon dioxide filter with the limited items. It is true that the explosion and the needed filter took place, but in spite of that Thomas Mattingly stated that every procedure done in Apollo 13 has been done before in somewhere in all the simulations; furthermore, there was already a stimulation for Apollo 8 where they needed to make a carbon dioxide filter, so they called up Joe Kerwin and were informed how to construct the filter (Write, Rebecca.) Thus, it was straightforward procedure for Apollo 13 that took no less than a hour, in comparison to the movie which it took the engineers an extensive amount of time to assemble the