October Sky: An Uplifting Film

October Sky is an uplifting film directed by Joe Johnston. It is a true biographical story of how Homer H. Hickam, Jr., went from being a coal miner’s son to NASA engineer. The setting takes place in Homer’s home town of Coalwood in West Virginia. Homer (played by the talented Jake Gyllenhaal) starts out as being sort of an unpopular kid in his high school. In his town, kids were destined to either earn themselves a scholarship from sports or do what most families did and work down in the coal mine; Homer was seemingly resistant to both scenarios while his father had only one of the two in mind. It isn’t till one starry night when the town hears news that the Soviet Union’s rocket launch of Sputnik 1 will be visible from his town that Homer

realizes his destiny. He decides the next day with his friends that he is going to make his own rocket and launch it into the sky. Due to their inexperience with rocket science, he actually makes a bomb and blows up his fence. Initially he was made fun by everyone in the town for his failed attempts, especially when he decides to seek help from the school’s geek, Quentin.
With the help and support of his friends Quentin, O’Dell, Roy and science teacher Miss Riley the four kids start building successful rockets. After several launches, the paper starts running stories about them and people in the town look forward to their launches. Meanwhile, Homer’s father (played by Chris Cooper) had a dream that his sons would one day join him in working in the coal mine. With Homer’s brother looking to get a football scholarship- Homer was left to fulfill his father’s goal. When his father noticed that he was working on rockets so passionately he wanted to put an end to it. He didn’t like seeing his son doing what he thought was waste of time. Kids from Coalwood didn’t often go on to become scientists let alone work at NASA and to Mr. Hickam, his son was no exception. Eventually a forest fire breaks out of the outskirts of town and Homer is arrested for being suspected of starting it with one of his rockets. He was banned from making rockets in Coalwood and his dream of making rockets seemed it would never become a reality.
As a result, the defeated Homer decided to drop out of high school and start working in the coal mine with his father.

Although Homer’s experience in the mines weren’t all that bad. He liked working with his dad. The mines just seemed like the furthest place from the stars whenever he looked up riding the elevator shaft deep into the earth. Quentin eventually comes to him with a case that could prove the boy’s innocence and in time the boys find that the cause of the fire was not one of their rockets but a flare from a nearby airfield. This allowed Homer return to building rockets and enter the national science fair. With the help of his initially reluctant father, homer is able to make it the faire and show the world his rocket that is capable of achieving 30 thousand feet. At the end of the movie the director puts in a couple slides talking about where the boys went later in

life.
I toughly enjoyed this film.

It was very inspirational and captures some of the main ideas we have learned about the Appalachian migration. At its core, the film presents viewers with a town in Appalachia that is essentially going nowhere. The coal mine wasn’t supplying the town with money like it used to and there isn’t really any other work driving their economy. People are on the verge of poverty and there is seemingly no way out but leaving. Homer could be seen as someone who acknowledged this fact and dreamt of doing something better with his life. He sought work that suited his interests and didn’t limit himself to working where he was born. What he did isn’t easy for most individuals; abandoning your home and heritage is not something humans naturally seek out- this could perhaps be a major reason for why most thought he was strange. Before world war one and during the depression individuals who stayed in these towns faced hard times migrating to cities in search of work. The skills they had developed in their home towns didn’t translate to rural, suburban job fields. Education wasn’t a priority in Appalachia, learning a trade and helping your community was most Appalachian peoples’ goal in life. This film took place in 1957, around 10 years after World War 2. As far as I know, we haven’t delved too deeply into this time period, so I am not completely sure how different Appalachia was then in comparison to the pre/post world war one Appalachia we have been recently

reading about now. The film did show a version of Appalachia during 1957 that was slightly more accepting of individuals of color. Homer’s dad was almost shown to be a raciest in the film but later revealed to have made a kind hearted decision when he moved the man who helped Homer with his rocket from the mine to the workshop. He gave the man more hours but less pay which was ultimately giving him a better opportunity to help his family.
All-in-all, poverty was not a huge aspect of this film. The people in town appeared to have some social problems like Homer’s friend did with his father, or the overall negativity towards education displayed by the town’s people, but true homelessness was never depicted. I feel like this film was uplifting but not extremely educational of any of the aspects that weren’t relevant to telling Homer Hickam’s story. Biographical films normally suffer from this trope because it makes viewers more engaged with the inspirational aspect of the individual who the film is based on rather than the environment or individuals around them. The main character in films like these are so front and center it seems like everyone is there to help them succeed or fail and you can easily tell who is who. I left the movie feeling pretty good for having watched it. The acting was superb and the plot almost resembled stand-by-me at points. As a standalone film, I’d give October Sky about a B, but as a history lesson I’d say closer to a low C.