My Review of "October Sky"

October Sky had me engaged from the minute it started. What's even crazier is that it's based on a true story. Going into the movie I thought it was already an extraordinary tale. To find out that it was based on a true story really inspired me to believe in people and their dreams.

This movie starts out by giving us the atmosphere of what Americans were going through back in the 1950s. The cold war was in raging on and the Russians had just successfully sent their Sputnik satellite into orbit. Americans are obviously paranoid since this was very advanced technology at the time.

Contrast to the rest of the small town of Coalwood the main character, Homer, becomes inspired by the huge event. He convinces his friends to help him build a rocket.

Now this is a small coal mining town. The only thing people in this little town know is mining. It's actually expected of Homer to join this local trade. His father looks after the local mine and his very good at his job. He puts added pressure to Homer to follow in his footsteps.

This idea isn't far fetched because it isn't believed that anyone in this town ever gets out of their town unless they get some sort of sports scholarship to go to college. Homer's older brother was lucky enough to get one of these elusive scholarships so it all falls on Homer to support the family after his dad.

It's a relatively simple plot but there's so much more to the journey that Homer and his pals get themselves into. They overcome social ostracism when they recruit a local nerd named Quentin. His smarts would help Homer and the pals to form the Rocket Boys.

I love how they really emphasized how no one had any faith in their abilities except for maybe Homer's mom and their teacher Miss Riley. Their teacher even encourages them to join a science fair in order to give them a glimpse of home in getting a scholarship to a good college.

All of them have different motives in making the rocket. Some of them want to get out of the town so they don't have to become coal miners, while others are really fascinated in getting a rocket to actually work. Regardless of the reasons why, these 4 boys build a strong bond with one another. They even garner attention from others in the town eventually.

There are a number of different sort of relationship stories that kind of get glazed over. I realize they had to keep the run time of the movie to a reasonable time but they missed out on a few interesting concepts. Instead they focused on what they really needed to. Still there are certain story-lines that you feel could have been beefed up a bit. If they ever make a short TV series on this they could possibly expand on it.

Some of the things that happen in the movie can at times seem over-dramatic but I wouldn't know what's really based on real life or not. If this stuff actually happened in real life I can't imagine what the real Homer went through in his teenage years.

It's a very emotional story that will have you rooting for the boys. I'm sure that their project made their families and their town very proud. The story made me want to research Homer's story a little more.

Overall, I loved this movie. This is probably the best movie I've seen in weeks. It brought so much joy in me watching it and I hope others will be able to experience the same excitement by watching it. I have to give this movie a 9 out of 10. This is definitely a movie that I will be suggesting to all of my friends.