Zo Abramson

Green group
4/23/17
Cinematic Analysis, Apollo 13
Part A: Apollo 13 was about a space mission to the moon. It was the first lunar landing

space mission after Apollo 11, where the first man walked on the moon. For the astronauts that

were going to the moon it was the biggest moment of their lives. The spaceship starts out

working well, but about half way through the trip a small explosion in the fuel tank happens.

When the space ship took off there was very little public interest in the mission. The public

didnt think that it was exciting after a moon landing had already happened. Once the incident

took place the public was suddenly interested in what was going to happen. As they tried to

resolve the situation it is revealed that having trust in one another can resolve almost any

problem.

There are three astronauts originally scheduled to be on the crew of the Apollo 13

mission. Jim Lovell is the commander of Apollo 13. Fred Haise is the Lunar Module Pilot of the

Apollo 13 mission. Ken Mattingly was supposed to be the piolet of the Apollo 13, but there were

concerns over him getting the missiles in space. So Jack Swigert, from the backup crew, takes

over as piolet of the spaceship. During trial missions, and even in space the other two astronauts

on board dont trust him. When on board everything is going fine until mission control told

Swigert to check the oxygen tanks, and it triggers an explosion. To save the men, and get them

back safely mission control decides that the only way for the men to survive is to save power.

They turn off the command module and moved into the lunar module that is only build for two

men. They had to turn off the heat and anything else that wasnt needed to survive. They only

have one working engine to get them back. Mission control comes up with a plan to use the

moons gravity to catapult them back to earth. The lunar module was only built for two people, so

the carbon dioxide levels were becoming deadly, and they dont have the right filters. All of the

scientist come up with a procedure to create a filter using nothing but what they have on board.
At one point Haise seems to blame Swigert for the explosion even though it wasnt his fault. In

order to land they have to turn on the command module. The crew doesnt think that mission

control has a procedure to turn on the command module, but they had Ken Mattingly working on

it. He figures out a way to turn the command module back on, but it uses too much energy. He

eventually comes up with a way to turn it on using power from the lunar module. It works; and if

the parachutes arent frozen, and the heat shield still works the crew will be able to land safely.

The crew finally got lucky and they land safely.

In their adventure the crew had moments of not trusting each other, and of not trusting

mission control. Mission control sometimes didnt even trust their coworkers. Once they all

believed in each other they were able to overcome the explosion and save the crew.

Part B: The Apollo 13 space mission was part of the U.S. space program. The funding to

NASA was increased during Kennedys presidency to catch up with the Russian space program.

Until Apollo 11, the moon walk by Neil Armstrong, the U.S. was falling behind Russia in the

space race. The launch of Sputnik, a beach ball size satellite, by the Russians was the first

satellite to orbit the earth. The U.S. was planning to launch a satellite, but the launch of Sputnik

changed everything. The U.S. created NASA as a response to the launch of Sputnik. The launch

of Sputnik was during the cold war and it worried many Americans that Russia could use the

same technology to launch inter-continental missiles. The Russians then launched Sputnik II,

where they put the first animal in space (Garber). The Russian followed that up with putting the

first human in space (Vostok 1). As part of friendship 7 American John Glenn made three orbits

around the earth, but the Russians remained ahead by sending Gherman Titov in Vostok 2 who made 17

orbits around the earth (History.com authors). The space race was most likely part of the cold war and
even after the first American moon landing they wanted to prove their superiority even more, so they

created a second lunar landing mission. The making of the movie was a few years after what many

believe to be the end of the cold war. The movie still wanted to make the U.S. space program look good.

Even though there was an explosion and a mistake in the manufacturing of the space ship the movie

focused more on the heroics of getting the three men back safely. Even though the movie was mostly

factual it was made in a way that made the mistake in the Apollo 13 look like the greatest American

success.

Part C, option 1: The movie Apollo 13 uses many cinematographic techniques to

enhance the movie. The lighting creates mood in the movie. At the beginning, before the

spaceship takes off, the lighting is very bright. Once the explosion happens the lights seem to go

off. It creates a very somber mood. The screen is still light enough to see what is happening

though. Many of the angles that the director choses also help to show the emotions. When the

country was watching to see if the men would come back alive many of the characters that were

close to the astronauts had extreme close up shots. Also when they were cutting through the

shots they had multiple shots were the camera was close and the character was looking at the

clock. At one point they cut from Jim Lovells wife, to his mom, to his kids using extreme close

ups to show the emotion of the family members. In the spaceship the astronauts are very

crammed. The director uses side angles to make the astronauts look extremely close together.

Also when there were large crowds of people the camera was in a position where you felt like

part of the crowed, not only from your angle of sight. But from your knowledge and control over

what is going to happen. The camera angles, and the lighting are used together to create a good

visual movie.
 Works Cited Page

Garber, Steve. "Sputnik." NASA, 10 Oct. 2007, history.nasa.gov. Accessed 23 Apr.

2017.

History.com authors. "First Man in Space." History.com, A+E Networks, 2010,

www.history.com. Accessed 23 Apr. 2017.