It's fair to expect movies inspired by true events to reinterpret what actually happened, sometimes in minor ways and sometimes in major ones, but it's always interesting to find out how. A new documentary on Netflix will help you do exactly that, for a beloved Tom Hanks movie.
This new addition to Netflix is called Apollo 13: Survival, and it's a feature-length story which looks at the Apollo 13 disaster in 1970. This attempt by NASA to land men on the moon and return them safely went wrong after two days in air, leading to a fight for survival by the three on the ground.
Apollo 13: Survival combines the archival footage of the event with never-before-scene glimpses into the households of the astronaut's family videos recorded at the time, to show what it was like at the time.
After playing at esteemed documentary film festivals like CPH:DOX and DC/DOX earlier this year, Apollo 13: Survival lands on Netflix on Thursday, September 5, so you can watch it too.
Naturally, reviewers have been comparing Apollo 13: Survival to the most famous retelling of these events: Ron Howard's Apollo 13 movie, which came out in 1995.
This drama movie stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Ed Harris and Gary Sinise, and depicts the build-up to the mission as well as the tragedy itself and the after-effects of it.
Apollo 13 won two Oscars, for Best Film Editing and Best Sound, and was nominated for seven more including Best Picture. It's remembered as a bona fide classic with a sweltering 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Reportedly, Ron Howard ensured that Apollo 13 was highly historically accurate, going so far as to get NASA to train the cast in zero-gravity environments so they could better act like astronauts in space.
However it was still a Hollywood movie and that means some artistic liberties had to be taken, so Apollo 13: Survival will be a fascinating counterpart to help you better understand the realities of what happened.
Unfortunately, while Apollo 13: Survival is on Netflix, Apollo 13 is harder to watch. In the US it's on Starz but in the UK you'll have to rent or buy it digitally or physically in order to watch the movie.
