With Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary of the moon landing behind us, my family spent the week watching Apollo-related movies.
This is our list of favorites and why
October Sky
The music, the times, the story. Homer Hickam’s memoir of growing up in Coalwood, WV echoes throughout.
I love the determination of a young teacher to ensure some of her students escape working in the coal mines.
The videos and the trouble the boys went through to make successful rockets are winsome, funny, and dramatic. (Hickam’s book is called Rocket Boysand it’s wonderful, too)
It’s about a young man growing up, determined to make something of himself, who takes his friends with him.
Ultimately, Homer Hickam became a NASA engineer and bestselling author.
October Sky displays the determination of so many (including my father-in-law) to join the US space program.
All their work contributed to the Apollo flights–as Neil Armstrong himself said after he walked on the moon.
The astronauts knew their fame, safety, and success were the result of 400,000 people working together in the aerospace program.
The Right Stuff
Of course, The Right Suff is the perfect lead-in to the Apollo program!
I saw it with friends when it first came out in theaters.
I drove myself home, zooming the car as quickly as possible until I realized I didn’t want a speeding ticket!
This movie highlighted the efforts and work of the people behind the space program.
I loved Chuck Yeager’s amazing daring-do with those fast jets, and read his biography, Yeager, shortly thereafter.
I fell in love with his wife, Glynnis, a strong-willed military wife. She loved her husband but didn’t let him get away with anything.
As I was a military wife at the time, her example and that of many others was a great encouragement.
Tom Wolfe’s book, The Right Stuff, is also fabulous. As a military wife, I found the first chapter chilling and terrifying.
First Man
Wow, quite an impact this one had on us!
First Man was released in 2018, and we saw it in a movie theater.
We were surprised the noisy space capsule–the movie included the deafening background noise of traveling into space.
It’s a complicated portrait of Neil Armstrong that neither my husband nor I knew.
Mrs. Armstrong was another strong wife, determined to make her husband be a father as well as a hero.
It helped us remember how fragile those Apollo orbiters were as well as the courage of the men who flew all the space ships
The Dish
Quirky, funny, entertaining, poignant, Australian!
We were surprised to learn about the near-failure of our ability to watch one giant step on television.
Based on a true story–though slightly embroidered–The Dish is the funniest film of the bunch.
The story of Australians and a NASA guy ensuring we saw the moon landing on television!
We wouldn’t have seen Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon without this dish. It’s still working and based out of a sheep paddock down under.
It’s got tension, pathos, clever dialogue, irony, and the theme song from Hawaii 5-O masquerading as the US national anthem!
Sam Neill plays a straight man to a series of characters. They’re all earnestly striving to do their job for the good of the world.
Apollo 13
We watch Apollo 13 all the time.
(It ranks up there with The Hunt for Red October as a great science-related film)
It’s about what happened to a subsequent Apollo flight after Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon. It tells the story of American engineers rising to get the job done, and the astronauts returned safely to earth.
My father-in-law was one of those men who figured out the electrical system.
My husband remembers him not coming home for three days while they figured out.
When the movie came out, we took my father-in-law to see it.
He enjoyed the film. He did wonder why some of the switches in the command module were not in the right place.
The rest of us looked at each other. We hadn’t noticed a problem.
After all,” Louis said, “They could have used the command module in the Smithsonian Institute.”
Apollo 13–Jim Lovell’s book
I can’t resist a funny story about Jim Lovell’s book, Apollo 13.
We attended the 50th-anniversary party marking the end of World War II on a Navy aircraft carrier.
The honored guest was Jim Lovell.
When we introduced ourselves to him and asked for his autograph, I had something to say.
“While we loved the movie, I really enjoyed the book more. I appreciated how you traded chapters with your wife Marilyn, to tell the story. As a Nave wife, I enjoyed hearing her side!”
A huge grin spread across Jim Lovell’s face and he called down the table, “Hey, Marilyn! Come meet a Navy wife who liked my book!”
Marilyn broke off her conversation, frowned at her husband, nodded at me and shook her head.
Who can blame him? Writers are always excited someone liked their book!
We’re just thankful we can watch such terrific stories about the US space program, particularly Apollo.
What’s your favorite space movie?
Tweetables
The 5 best Apollo-related movies. Click to Tweet
5 terrific Apollo space program-related films, and books, too! Click to Tweet
What’s your favorite US space program movie? 5 thoughts. Click to Tweet
Loved October Skies, also the book it’s based on, “Rocket Boys.”
Yes, wonderful in a different way. There were three of them., but Rocket Boys was the best.
What did you think of the Tom Hanks-produced HBO series?
Just for the fun of it, you inspired some rhyme.
Don’t need to see the space of dreams
in movies, books or rhyme;
it’s superfluous, so it seems,
’cause I’m spaced out all the time.
They say my brain is like the moon
but with more albedo, if you please,
and to explain why I’m quite the loon,
it’s made up of green cheese.
My thoughts are like the meteors
blazing through the sky,
but in the comparison, this thought occurs;
they don’t land before they die.
Thus do my mates all bid me fair
as being beyond cosmic compare.
Oh, Andrew! I’m so glad you’re still with us. We didn’t see the Hanks HBO show–no HBO at our house. I could look at the library, though. 🙂