Apollo 13 was the 13th manned space mission to the moon. Its crew was composed of Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Jack Swigart (Kevin Bacon) and Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) who were all originally slated to man the Apollo 14th mission. The missioned launched at exactly 1300H and 13 minutes on April 11, 1969 and was expected to enter the moon’s orbit on April 13th. On the 3rd day of the mission (April 13th), tragedy struck; the mission never managed to land on the moon, and the race to save the lives of 3 astronauts began. That day, what was originally dismissed as another “routine launch” made history.
What made an already intriguing film premise such as the fate of the Apollo 13 mission more interesting and richer was the existence of real gripping human drama that the film managed to represent so well. In this movie where there are no gun fights, exploding buildings, or laser-totting men in black, the drama lies in the tension created by the extreme situations that the characters have to overcome using only their wit and sheer determination for survival. More interestingly, survival movies such as the Apollo 13 biopic are the best at depicting how ordinary people can rise above adversities and how this “how” is in the heart of these films. This “how” is a quality possessed by the protagonist/s — the trait called leadership.
The concept of leadership had a strong presence throughout the film. As was said earlier, there are no terrorist factions to defeat or maniacal villains to outsmart in this movie. All the conflicts inherent to the movie were of man versus circumstances — a conflict best resolved through sheer diligence, ingenuity, and in a group, through teamwork and leadership.
The movie Apollo 13 showcased a wide range of leadership styles the characters had to utilize in order to rise above the dangers facing the mission and the lives of the three astronauts stranded in space. One specific instance of this is when flight director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) held a meeting with the other flight controllers discussing the amount of fuel and available power time the astronauts had.
In this scene, Gene Kranz and, to some extent, a character named John Aaron demonstrated distinct leadership styles. For the most part, Kranz seems to be a very democratic/participative kind of leader, a kind of leader who involves members of his team in the decision making process but holds the final authority (Mind Tools). His use of this style of leadership enables him to piece together various information that he and his team possesses in order to come up with better decisions (Clark).
However this is not the only style Kranz employs throughout the scene. There are also instances where Kranz shifts towards a task-oriented style, a more autocratic style of leadership that is especially useful when the situation warrants a specific set of actions needed to be accomplished, where the tasks are already known and defined, and when the tasks are needed to be accomplished within a short time-frame (Mind Tools). Since Kranz shifts from one leadership style to another, it can be assumed that he is most likely a situational leader — one who shifts from instinctively from one leadership style to another according to the task, situation, and people being dealt with.
Another leadership style that can be seen from the said part of the movie is the emergence of a servant leader — a leader who “leads simply by virtue of meeting the needs of his or her team” regardless of his level in the organization (Mind Tools). This was in the form of John Aaron when he stepped up fighting for the importance of power to the stranded crew and detailed out how the issue can be resolved. Another instance of this situation was when Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) leads the stranded crew’s power-up procedure near the end of the movie and guides them all throughout the re-entry process.
The leadership styles depicted in the movie are some of the best styles widely used today. These styles are used by a wide range of individuals, from corporate CEOs to soccer moms. In my own personal experience, I can say that among these leadership styles, I can identify most with the use of servant leadership since I am not a person who usually stands in the front lines. However, whenever a situation demands the necessity of a leader, I am not reluctant to assume the role.
An instance of this is when I was younger; it was summer and I and a few of my friends decided that it would be fun to have a bake sale so we could fund the building of our clubhouse. It was already set that we would be using the kitchen at our house since ours had the largest space and the necessary equipment, that my friend April would lead us since she is the “baker” among the group, that I, Stacy, and Margaret would be her assistants, and that Elise and Charlotte would be responsible for setting up the stall we would use for our bake sale. All of these were already planned weeks ahead, but when the bake sale day came, we were surprised to find that April had fallen ill with chicken pox and was not available to help.
Naturally, the group almost unanimously decided to cancel the plans, but seeing that we have already prepared the materials (some of which are perishable), I urged the group to push forward with the plans. Though none of us knew how to bake, fortunately our house had some baking cook books and magazines lying around so I decided to lead the group through these books while also setting up a way to reach April so we could consult with her throughout the whole process. In the end, we didn’t make the best cookies or brownies anybody has tasted, but we did push through with the bake sale and managed to collect enough money for our clubhouse fund.
Works Cited
- Clark, Donald. “Leadership Styles.” Performance, Learning, Leadership, & Knowledge.
- 21 August 2008. NWLink.com. 19 November 2008 <http://www.nwlink.com/~Donclark/leader/leadstl.html>.
- Mind Tools. Leadership Styles: Using the Right One for Your Situation. 2008. Mind Tools, Ltd. 18 November 2008 <http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm>.
