The Best Apollo Movies

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 acting, the wit and the determination of one young teacher to make sure some of her students escape working in the coal mines.

The rocket videos and the trouble the boys went through to make rockets that worked (the book is called Rocket Boys and it’s wonderful, too), are winsome, funny and dramatic.

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 is the first on this list because it so well displays the determination of so many (including my own father-in-law) to be part of 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 was the result of so many people, more than 400,000, 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 the movie theater.

My husband was out to sea on a submarine, so I drove myself home, zooming our stick-shift Celica as quickly as possible up Route 3, until I realized I didn’t want a speeding ticket!

This movie is perhaps longer than it needs to be, but it, too, highlighted the efforts and work of the people behind the space program.

I loved Chuck Yeager’s amazing daring-do with those fast jets, so much so that I read his biography, Yeager, shortly thereafter.

I fell in love with his wife, Glynnis, a strong-willed military wife who 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, but 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 released in 2018 and we saw it in the movie theater.

We couldn’t get over how noisy the movie was as it 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!

What could be a better point of view 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.

It has an almost tongue-in-cheek attitude about a group of Australians and one NASA guy tasked with providing the satellite dish that bounced the moon television video to the world.

We wouldn’t have seen Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon without this dish–still working and based out of sheep paddock down under.

It’s got tension, pathos, humor, 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, all of whom earnestly strive 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)

Obviously, it’s about what happened to a subsequent Apollo flight after Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon, but it’s a telling story of American engineers rising to get the job done and the astronauts returned safely to earth.

My father-in-law was an aerospace engineer and one of those men who figured out how to make the air filter work.

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 but 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.

My husband and I attended the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II party on a Navy aircraft carrier in Pearl Harbor.

The honored guest was Jim Lovell.

When we stepped up to introduce ourselves to him and ask for his autograph on our programs, I had something to say.

While we loved the movie, I really enjoyed the book more.

I appreciate how you traded chapters with your wife Marilyn.

As a Navy wife, I enjoyed hearing her side of the story.”

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?

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