APOLLO 13

This film itself was not my favorite.  However I feel the subject in which it was based is extremely interesting.  For some reason, as this tragedy was happening, I did not feel very invested in the well being of these astronauts.  I don't feel the director did a good enough job of developing the characters so that you felt a sense of compassion for them.  The actors did a great job of portraying their characters, but I felt they lacked in connecting to the audience.  I would recommend this movie to others though because there are very little known examples of the events that went on up in space.  A theme that was prevalent in this film is that sometimes giving up is not an option.  These three men had so many obstacles they had to face yet they preserved tackled every single one.  Even though they weren't able to reach their initial goal of reaching the moon, they received the ultimate gift which is life.

This is an iffy subject for me because I can argue both sides.  One, I feel that outer space and the unknown is a magnificent thing that should be explored and understood.  We are a tiny speck in a universe that I feel we know very little about.  How are we to know what occurs in the opposite side, and I feel learning more about that could have a very positive effect on our society.  On the flip side, $9.928 billion a year is an obscene amount of money.  And I can't help but think what other organizations that money could go to.  Like feeding the hungry or housing the poor.  There is a very delicate balance between using what is necessary in order to make a better future, and using excessive amounts that could benefit another cause.

The fact that the United States currently can't travel to space is something that is hard to get my head around.  It seems very odd that more than 50 years ago we had the capability to complete this task, but in present time we don't.  There is a common assumption that technology only improves over time, not that it goes backwards.  I don't think we should give up on space exploration, there is a vast unknown out there that I feel we should strive to learn more about.  Plus I personally like being in first place, and I don't really like the idea of other countries having a leg up on us with something so potentially influential.