OCTOBER SKY (Universal - 1999) Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Chris Owen, William Lee Scott, Chad Lindberg, Natalie Canerday Screenplay by Lewis Colick, based on the book "Rocket Boys" by Homer H. Hickam Produced by Charles Gordon and Larry Franco Directed by Joe Johnston Running time: 108 minutes
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
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Judging by what made it to the screen in OCTOBER SKY, it quickly becomes clear why Universal greenlighted a film based on the memoir of NASA engineer Homer H. Hickam Jr. -- if we're to believe the events depicted in the picture, his story as an ambitious adolescent trapped in a dying West Virginia coal mining town plays exactly like a Hollywood movie. Other than a few touches (I can envision studio executives pensively musing "Now, does he *have* to be named Homer Hickam?"), this tale of a teenager struggling against adversity adheres to the conventional inspirational drama formula so closely that the "Based On A True Story" opening title card seems as much of a shield against skepticism as it does a selling point.
In today's market, this modest film feels like a throwback: an unabashedly earnest, clean-cut bit of storytelling which reveals its colours as surely as the movie's teacher will gently chide students mercilessly teasing the resident science kid by drawling "He's right, y'all." Set in 1957 in the relatively-isolated town of Coalwood, the picture follows the story of Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal), a teen who becomes inspired by the launch of Russia's Sputnik satellite and starts to build his own rockets, enlisting the help of friends Roy Lee (William Lee Scott), O'Dell (Chad Lindberg), and math whiz Quentin (Chris Owen). Coalwood is a mining town through and through, where the only visible means of escape is via a football scholarship like Homer's older brother Jim (Scott Miles); everybody else is relegated to an unpromising life down in the mines. While Homer's dreams are buoyed by his supportive teacher Miss Riley (Laura Dern), who suggests that competing in the regional science fair may net college scholarships and a way out for the rocket boys, he's dissuaded and disparaged at every turn by his stern father John (Chris Cooper), who tidily happens to be the town's mine supervisor and considers Homer's ambitions to be foolhardy.
While director Joe Johnston employs frequent usage of the easy contrast between Homer's skyward aspirations and the gloomy depths of the mine, he also diffuses the grimy claustrophobia of the depressed milieu with the old-fashioned wholesomeness of the community; this is a place where a girl can scamper up to our young hero, bat her eyes, and sigh "Golly, Homer, it sure was exciting watching your rockets go up!" without any ironic or tongue-in-cheek connotations. If the period dress and liberal use of archetypes wasn't enough to remove any residual doubt of its aim to depict an ostensibly simpler, more innocent time, the film lazily establishes the era by deluging the soundtrack with wall-to-wall classic rock 'n' roll. (A montage of comic misfires is unimaginatively set to "Ain't That A Shame?")
Although the utterly pedestrian OCTOBER SKY is a textbook example of cookie-cutter filmmaking, there's nothing much to really fault with Mr. Johnston's workmanlike helming or the sincere, capable performance of young lead Mr. Gyllenhall, but it's all so generic that it's easy to resist. The story's trajectory is so unwaveringly apparent that there's no sense of wonder to accompany the shots of characters gaping at their amateur rocket blasts, and the film is riddled with such cardboard stereotypes and typecasting that I found it difficult to invest much emotion in their plights. Just when John seems ready to cross the line from strict authoritarian to unfeeling tyrant, you can count on him to reaffirm his gruffly loving nature by performing a good deed, and as helpful teacher Miss Riley, Ms. Dern so earnestly strains to light a fire under her students that I expected her to pull a facial muscle. While the picture is reasonably pleasant, it's narratively stupefying -- a shot of a disgusted John throwing a spent rocket into the trash is a given, and it's inevitable that an oft-mentioned legendary outsider makes a fleeting appearance -- and the syrupy score by Mark Isham condescendingly serves as an emotional guide for the audience. Ironically, for a picture about a boy whose hard work and ambitions sent him shooting for the stars, OCTOBER SKY is depressingly unambitious. For all its good intentions, it's telling that the home video footage which closes the picture is infinitely more touching and awe-inspiring than the preceding hundred-odd minutes of celluloid.
[ ** (out of four stars) | Alternate Rating: C ]
- Alex Fung, February 20, 1999
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
-- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "X-FILES fans come up to me in malls expecting me to be able to fill them in on the whole conspiracy. Half the time I have no idea what they're talking about." - Martin Landau
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