An anagram of "Rocket Boys", the autobiography
of Homer H. Hickam Jr., October Sky is
a is a simple yet captivating 102 minutes film.
Homer is a high school kid living in Coalwood, West Virginia.
He watches Sputnik the night of October 5th 1957
and he decides right then and there he will go to space. His
friends join him in the adventures of designing
building and launching rockets. Homer brings to
the club Quentin, the science nerd of the class
who loves the word prodigious. Their teacher, Miss Riley,
insists that they should enter their rocket project and compete to
go to the National Science Fair which they win in 1960.
All four are awarded college scholarships and escape coal mining. Homer
becomes a NASA engineer.
The film is rich in humor and sentiment and the events as shown ring real.
I really enjoyed the rocket launching : starting from
the small torch-rocket that blew up Homer's yard fence,
to the many rockets exploding at or shortly
after ignition, to the prodigious, really, last rocket they launched which
went up six miles ! Applause for the performances of the young actors
Jake Gyllenhaal(Homer) and Chris Owen(Quentin). Laura Dern (Miss Riley) is
the teacher one does not forget. The movie in all, is great.
Rating:
up ........ charm top
down strange bottom