October sky5/20/2023 ![]() Instead, he chooses a new path that follows his passion: rocket building. The only known road out of Coalwood is a football scholarship. But when the first spacecraft, the Russian Sputnik, flies over Coalwood, high-school student Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) catches a glimpse of the bigger world and can no longer accept his presumed future. Even the high school principal puts more of a priority on picking coal than on getting education. WITH: Jake Gyllenhaal (Homer Hickam), Chris Cooper (John Hickam), William Lee Scott (Roy Lee), Chris Owen (Quentin), Chad Lindberg (O'Dell), Natalie Canerday (Elsie Hickam) and Laura Dern (Miss Riley).It’s 1957 in Coalwood, West Virginia, and all roads point to the local coal mine. Produced by Charles Gordon and Larry Franco released by Universal Pictures. director of photography, Fred Murphy edited by Robert Dalva music by Mark Isham production designer, Barry Robison It includes mild profanity and is otherwise quite suitable for children.ĭirected by Joe Johnston written by Lewis Colick, based on the book "Rocket Boys," by Homer H. "October Sky" is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). As Homer's mother, Natalie Canerday of "Slingīlade" shows more zest than even the niftiest schoolboy rocket launch can provide. Owen, bespectacled and goofy as the stereotypical math geek, suits the film's taste for typecasting as well as its quaintly 1950s look, which calls for studiously modest props and costumes, and for townsfolk who are often RockwellishlyĬooper gives natural authority and a second or third dimension to the senior Homer, who is here called John and, of course, eventually comes to appreciate his son's achievements. Is the best present he has ever received that his affecting performance is liable to breathe life into science projects everywhere. ![]() But he brings such sincerity to telling his science teacher that a book called "Principles of Guided Missile Design" Gyllenhaal does seem more like the Columbia University freshman he is than the rural West Virginian he plays. A pretty girl is on hand to sigh, "It sure was exciting In a film that appreciates the advent of "Jailhouse Rock" along with that of Sputnik, "Ain't That a Shame?" accompanies a montage of rockets gone kerflooey. Since this means commandeering metal from railroad tracks and visiting a still for 100-proof rocket fuel, the story has its playful Lee Scott and Chad Lindberg), Homer draws on limited local resources for his rocketry experiments. With the aid of his closest buddies (Chris Owen, William The film watches Homer progress from accidentally blowing a hole in the family's white picket fence, which virtually adjoins the mine, to learning how to make a rocket soar. Much of the story seems as inevitable as the guy who sidles up to a rocket launch with a camera around his neck, asking, "Which one of you fellas is Homer Hickam?" In a flash, Homer's picture winds up in the local paper. Teacher (Laura Dern), but each of these subplots plays out in familiar ways. As adapted by Lewis Colick, the screenplay shifts busily among the boys' rocket exploits, Homer's family, conditions at the mine and the influence of a dedicated science Trajectory that works against such appealing simplicity. Homer, played with beguiling eagerness by Jake Gyllenhaal, has to choose between frustrating his father and shooting for the stars.Ĭomparisons to "Stand by Me" are unavoidable, since "October Sky" has a small-town intimacy, a group of close-knit pals and the kind of innocence seldom found on screen these days. The senior Hickam, played by Chris Cooper as a headstrong man to be reckoned with, is a hard-driving mine foreman who simply has no way of understanding The tension between this teen-ager and his tough, coal-mining father its main concern. The difference between aiming sky high or descending into the mine is heavily emphasized, in both visual and dramatic terms.īased on Hickam's folksy, best-selling memoir, "Rocket Boys," Joe Johnston's second and better rocket film (after "The Rocketeer") contrasts Homer's high hopes with his all-but-certain destiny. Sputnik!" to a career as a NASA engineer. grew up in a West Virginia coal mining town and went from telling schoolmates, "I'm gonna build a rocket like With the gung-ho wholesomeness of a Horatio Alger story by way of Norman Rockwell, it tells how Homer H. Otherwise, despite its "based on a true story" opening credit, this earnest, nostalgic film has a way of seeming too good to be true. Y far the most moving scenes in "October Sky" are the home-movie snippets, circa 1957, that show the real people on whom the film's characters are based. The New York Times on the Web: Current Film.'October Sky': Eyes Toward the Stars, True to His DreamįILM REVIEW 'October Sky': Eyes Toward the Stars, True to His Dream
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