If you liked 2019's Apollo 11 (and I did), then you're probably gonna feel the same about 2024's Apollo 13: Survival (and I do). "Survival" is one of those movies where if you were alive at the time or you're some zealous history buff, you're gonna know the outcome. Probability as a minus? Uh, not really. If that was the case then a certain Tom Hanks vehicle from "The Good Decade " wouldn't command box office clout and become a critical darling. "We have commit, and we have lift-off." Yeah you do.
Directed by Peter Middleton, a guy who thinks in cuts (even though he didn't shoot the actuality of what's on screen) and distributed by Netflix, Apollo 13: Survival chronicles the Apollo 13 crew mission circa 1970, where three astronauts (Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise) failed to get to the Moon and had to error-free swing around Earth's satellite to get back home safely.
"Survival", well it's a documentary in which you wonder why it took so long to tell its story and how did all this pristine, archived restoration suddenly suffice after decades in the vault. I mean I got to tell ya, this is an impressive print, mildly grainy and whimsical and mindfully longing for the past.
Middleton in his third feature forgoes any reenactments or self-imposed flowery, using nothing but found footage and voice-only interviews from the immediate folk that were there. Yup, his film plays out like pure non-fiction, providing a stirring musical score by James Spinney and ripe, cosmos cinematography that is eerie beauty to the hilt. I mean with every dangerous situation those three rocket jocks faced, "Survival" just becomes even more riveting. Again you as the viewer know everything is gonna be copasetic via windup but that's beside the point. Apollo 13: Survival is a docu that would rather heighten the cinematic days of yore as opposed to just reinventing the Space Race hoop. "Shuttle of life."
Written by Jesse Burleson
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