OCTOBER SKY

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: profanity

Rated:

It's the mid nineteen-fifties, and the Russians have just put a shuttle into space, orbiting the earth and worrying the Americans that their enemies are further ahead of them in technology. Homer (Jake Gyllenhaal) could really care less. He's got his eye on a girl in school, hangs out with his friends, and tries to convince his father, a Coal Miner, that he's never going to follow in his footsteps... down into the black hole in the ground. But all that changes one night as Homer watches the shuttle fly through the sky, millions of miles away and brighter than a star. Fascinated by the idea of space, Homer and his friends Sherman and Roy decide to build their own rocket, which blows a hole in the back fence, and sheepishly they turn to the geekiest and most knowledgeable guy in school, Quentin, for help. Shunned as a nerd, Quentin eagerly accepts Homer's friendship, and soon wins the other guys over as well. 

They build their rocket. Unfortunately, however, this one winds up nearly injuring someone on the miner's team, and Homer's father bans any further experimentation on his property. Well, that's not so bad. The boys hike eight miles, off company land property, and build their own "space station," complete with a launch pad. Everyone thinks they're crazy except for their teacher, Miss Riley, who urges them to enter the state science fair to compete for collage scholarships. But they seemed doomed to failure at every turn. Their rockets explode before they lift off the ground. Go everywhere but up. Until one day everything clicks. They become town celebrities to all except Homer's dad (Chris Cooper), whom he argues with frequently over the mine, and a crowd comes to their next "liftoff." Unfortunately, the following day Quentin, Homer, Sherman, and Roy are arrested by the police. It seems there was a forest fire the night before, and the firefighters traced it back to a rocket found nearby.

October Sky is a refreshing and often emotional film that leaves you with a good feeling... and a box of tissues. It has everything to hold together a good story ~ friendship, family, disaster, excitement, and is passionate in its own way. And though it takes awhile to get into the story, and the film is rather long, it's worth it. However, viewers should be forewarned that profanity runs amuck in this PG film, despite its good heart -- I noted 42 all together, most of them uses of "d*mn" and "son of a--" but four were inappropriate uses of God's name. There's nothing to make your squirm other than the language, except one of the boys does say "Keep acting like that, and you can kiss losing your virginity goodbye." Too bad. Otherwise, this could have been a stirring and family-friendly film.