My favorite movie!!!
This weekend I got hold of October Sky and watched it again and again and again. This has been my favorite movie since the time I caught it on HBO one late night when I was an undergrad. Based on a true story, it is about 4 boys in a coal mine town in America in the late 1950s. After the Russians launch their Sputnik artificial satellite in 1957, Homer Hickam is inspired to build a rocket. The boys in this town have only 2 options — a lucky few will go to college on football scholarships and the rest become coal miners. Homer is inspired by Miss Riley, his Physics teacher to pursue his rocketry hobby so that he and his friends can participate in the National Science Fair and try for a Science scholarship into college. What follows is one of the most goosebumpy, emotional journeys I’ve ever experienced on-screen. The end result doesn’t actually matter, it turns out that the people around Homer matter the most. The movie ends with a memorable short of the 4 boys as they are today. The movie is based on the book Rocket Boys written by Homer Hickam.
For me, October Sky is a brilliant movie. A true story that is very very inspirational. Excellent camerawork, heart tugging violin background music (man the music by Mark Isham really moves the emotions in this movie!), good acting and superb direction. The movie abounds in metaphors (for example, Homer going down the mine shaft as Sputnik streaks across the sky). I don’t know if this movie will appeal to all, but it is my most favorite movie to this day. I absolutely love this movie and connect with it at all levels. The best stories are human. This movie is a testament to that.
If there is one movie I can recommend for you, this is the one.
Trivia: October Sky is an anagram of Rocket Boys.