Rating: 
 

The Info

Directed by: Joe Johnston
Written by: Lewis Colick
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Chris Owen, William Lee Scott, Chad Lindberg
Produced by: Larry J. Franco, Charles Gordon
 

The Nutshell

A young man in a small coal-mining town dreams of building rockets as the Russians blast the first Sputnik satellite into space, but has to break away from the town and his father first.
 

The Review

    October Sky is one of the better films to open in early 1999. Unfortunately, that's not saying much, as it is also one of the most manipulative. Dealing with a common movie theme (breaking out of small-town America), Sky does a very decent job of bringing the coal-mining town of the past to life. Another bonus is the near-complete absence of recognisable stars, which can often be a distraction in a film like this one.

    Based on the book Rocket Boys, this is the real-life story of Homer Hickam, a NASA engineer who had to overcome the disapproval of both his father and his town to succeed in his dream: building rockets. The film opens to the launching of Sputnik, the first ever satellite to successfully orbit the Earth, launched by the Russians. The fact that the Russians "got there first" caused an abundance of emotion in America, from paranoia to anger to the resolve to be Number One. In Hickam's mind, it awakened a desire to build rockets, a desire that was persistent and strong. Unfortunately he lives in a town that relies 100 percent on a coal mine for its prosperity, and even more unfortunately, his father John is the foreman.

    Along the way in his quest to build a rocket, Homer has many experiences. There is a humurous scene in which he decides to throw his social life to the dogs and start becoming chummy with the school "geek" O'Dell, there's the on-again, off-again love interests of Dorothy and Valentyna, one of which he has a crush on, the other likes him, but only when he is popular. The main interest of the film centers on the tensions within the Hickam family. John is dead-set against Homer doing anything but work in the mine, though brother Jim is given anything he wants, since he has gotten a football scholarship ticket out of town. (Similar themes can be found in Varsity Blues) John is a hard man, made harder by the pressures of the coal-miner's union for more money balanced against the pressures from the company brass, who want layoffs. He is stress personified and is the poster boy for the "why do anything differently? we've always done things this way" movement.

    Supporting Homer are his friends Quentin and Roy Lee, who provide most of the limited comic relief of the movie. Generally the scenes in which Homer and his friends are building, launching or unintentially blowing up rockets are the lightest in the film, while the scenes with John Hickam are the heaviest. Also along for the ride, with the movie's only recognisable face, is Laura Dern. As Miss Riley, she provides Homer with a lot of information that he needs to succeed in his dreams, and a lot of moral support.

    As acting efforts go, October Sky is above average. The cast of relative newcomers fully inhabit their roles, giving us a moving protrayal of smalltown life thirtysome odd years ago. Kudos go especially to Chris Cooper for the many layers of character he has put into John Hickam. Oddly, the performance that seems the flattest is that of Laura Dern, though that could well be because her character is boring and not given anything juicy to do.

    The problems with October Sky are few but serious ones. The main thing I found irritating was the manipulation. A good film will allow you to judge its characters for yourself. The audience should be given the chance to like or loathe every person onscreen, yet in Sky, that can't happen. We are force-fed how we should feel for each character: Miss Riley discovers she has a deadly disease and thus she is tragic and we must cry whenever she appears from then on, John Hickam is first shown to be a cold, heartless miner who only cares about money, and thus we hate him, but an absolutely pointless scene in which he stops Homer's friend's drunken stepfather from beating him up turns him into a good guy. Similarly, every other character, from the workers at the mine who help Homer, to the High School principal are each given one moment onscreen which defines how we must feel for them.

    The next problem is related in a way: October Sky is full of moments that are there only to manipulate us, which they do perfectly. At one point,  Homer launches a rocket successfully from just outside of town and we are given a shot of Miss Riley watching it soar into the sky from her hospital bed. Another weeper is the moment when Homer's father finally comes to watch him launch a rocket and Homer gives the crowd a speech about how wonderful everyone is, and then tops off the moment by inviting his father to hit the ignition switch, and to thus finally bond together as loving father and son. While we do cry, these scenes have no real reason to be there other than manipulation of the audience. The last problem is the predictability of the story. We know that Homer will find success. We know that the town will come together for a love-in and we know that when Homer goes to the State Science Fair, that he will win hands-down. This takes any possible tension out of the film, though in a film like this that maybe isn't very important.

    All in all, October Sky is a well-shot film about small-town life and about one man realizing his dreams that could have been one of the year's best if it had only chosen not to manipulate its audience. Luckily for its' makers, there are a lot of people who don't mind being manipulated and forced to cry, and thus the film isn't a disappointmentin the end, since it does satisfy a large portion of its audience.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

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