October Sky Universal Pictures Review by Ernest Lilley Editor - SFRevu (http://members.aol.com/sfrevu)
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (Homer Hickam) , Chris Cooper (John Hickam), William Lee Scott (Roy Lee), Chad Lindberg (O'Dell), Chris Owen (Quentin), Laura Dern (Miss Riley), Natalie Canerday (Elsie Hickam)
Director: Joe Johnston / Screenwriter: Lewis Colick / Producer: Charles Gordon
In October 1957 the coal industry was declining, rock and roll was rising, and all over the world people looked up to see man's first satellite streak across the night sky. A Russian satellite named Sputnik.
While most Americans trembled with fear or anger, a few felt another sense - wonder. OCTOBER SKY, is a true (nearly) story based (mostly) on the memoirs of Homer Hickam, who was 17 years old when Sputnik went up, and living in a West Virginia coal town. Homer got the sense of wonder out of it. Suddenly the future wasn't something you read about or watched on TV. Suddenly for Homer, it was something you had to be part of.
His brother is a local football hero and his dad is the mine supervisor. He's nothing special, not a jock, not a genius, just a bit of a dreamer. The kind of dreamer that can change the world if he finds the right dream. And for Homer, that dream is building rockets and the world is Coalwood, West Virginia.
The first rocket blows up his mother's garden. Rather than accept failure, Homer makes the ultimate sacrifice - he teams up with the school's oddball geek Quentin, and forges a rocket building team out of a group of friends. Along the way, lots of things blow up. The rockets do it. The miner's union does it. The principal does it. His dad really does it. But after a while, things start to take off - spectacularly, and a band of outcast boys gets a chance to carry the hopes of a small town toward the stars. So to speak. Actually it's a science fair, but it's really a lot more than that.
And along the way, they launch rockets.
Not hobby shop, paper tube and pre-made ceramic and cardboard engines like you can buy today. Ones made out of seamless steel tube with machined steel nozzles that arrow into the sky like javelins hurled at the heavens…usually. Early on, stability isn't their strong suit.
There's a lot of coming of age stuff in the movie. In fact, the producer decided to make it the point of the movie. Taking hold of a dream, believing in yourself, sharing vision, risking failure. The whole feelgood deal. Which was good. But the rocket launches should have been the star of the film. Of course, I'm sure that was done in the name of broader appeal, and maybe this means you can take a date along and both find something in the film. Much as I like feeling good, I would have liked it if they'd kept in a bit more of the stuff that makes my heart race - Sex, Rockets, and Rock and Roll.
The book, hastily re-titled OCTOBER SKY, after its release as ROCKET BOYS (reviewed in SFRevu Jan '99 http://members.aol.com/sfrevu) pulled a lot fewer punches. Teenagers discovered the things teenagers always discover, to their parents' horror, Jocks tear down what nerds build and in general it's a rougher ride for the rocket boys. I liked the book's version a lot better. The challenges were tougher, the success sweeter, and the rockets louder.
In a way, OCTOBER SKY is the real revenge of the nerds, except that instead of defeating the people who laugh at them, Homer, Quentin, and the others manage to draw them into their dream as well. And yes, that's the real trick. Yes, that's the lesson more valuable than how to mix rocket fuel out of moonshine and potassium over an open fire.
The movie is good, though it slows down in places. The book is great, and for me time reading it passed unnoticed. Do both. Go see OCTOBER SKY when it opens this weekend. Go read the book now that it's a paperback. Then, after the movie is over and the book closed, go start a dream of your own. Just remember not to blow yourself up.
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