Apollo 13: The Super 8 Cut

A very well-done abridged version of the Apollo 13 movie, especially in the technical sense with the super-8 visuals. I have my minor quibbles about the narrative, but it doesn't ruin my overall enjoyment of the edit, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys the history of space exploration.

A 17 minute version of Apollo 13? The only reason I watched it was because the link was right there, no download. I expected I would stop it a minute or two in - but I was soon beguiled by this experiment. Two hours cut from a movie but it was somehow seamless, and a cohesive, complete story was maintained. I was so bummed for Lovell when he was looking out at the moon, it was crushing. For me, the picky movie guy, an "8" for enjoyment is pretty darn high.

Here's the real testament to this edit - immediately following the fade to black I browsed the internet for stock footage of the moon missions!

Extremely well done. Brilliant to focus in on the Lovell's - Apollo13 is a human interest story rather than a disaster story, and you nailed it.
The only criticism I would have is that we don't feel the impact of the peril that they're in. i think another few minutes ratcheting up the tension would have helped, particularly when he's thinking of his wife (masterful editing by the way!).
Just watching this cut it seemed the big problem was that they "lost the moon" rather than were in mortal danger. I *felt* the impact because I know Apollo 13 - but if I was watching this without the benefit of that film a lot of the impact would have passed me by.
Be that as it may, this is a highly recommended edit, brilliantly condensed. Bravo.

Thoroughly enjoyed this version of Apollo 13. It made me feel like I was 5 years old again, watching a movie in my basement on my dads old 16mm.

This is a fabulous edit. I was a big fan of the original film as well, so I wasn’t sure a significantly condensed version could be pulled off. But it was pulled off beautifully.

At first, the story seemed a bit jumpy and I wasn’t really getting into it. But I realized that this was a Super 8 version of the movie, and the feel of it was probably similar to actual Super 8 movies of the era. It’s possible that, given the nature of the type of edit this was, nothing else could really be done about it.

So I settled in and just accepted that I wasn’t going to get emotionally connected to it this time. But then I did! All the right scenes are there; all the right emotional notes are hit. I had tears streaming down my face just as I did for the theatrical version!

Visually, the film looks terrific. The deliberately grainy look gives this production not only the feel of a Super 8 film, but frankly the feel of an actual documentary from the 1970s. If not for the fact that I know who Tom Hanks and the others are already, I would have thought that someone was just standing there at the actual launch (and inside the shuttle) capturing the whole thing.

There were some parts where scenes seemed to be moved around, but the editing was seamless enough that I wasn’t ever quite sure when things were edited and when they weren’t. I think the final shot was taken from a different point in the movie, but if I hadn’t already seen the original (of course), I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

I’m going to give this edit a 9 out of 10. I take just one point off because the film did seem to have a choppy feel to it in the beginning, although I have no idea what I would have done myself to make it better. This may simply be the best version possible in this format. But at any rate, for the second half, I wouldn’t change a thing! Terrific job!