"October Sky"
(1999, USA)
Writers: Lévis Collick, Homer Seakam
Director: Joe Chuangston
Starring Jack Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dunn
tale:
In 1957, when the Cold War was in full swing and the Soviet Satellite was successfully launched, the American people fell into a state of panic and uneasiness. Homer, a high school student in coal forest town, lost the team selection, watched the Soviet satellites across the sky, not willing to be mediocre, eager to get out of the town, he came up with the idea of making rockets. Homer's three friends joined his team, and with the help and support of physics teacher Miss Reilly, the "Rocket Boys" frantically learned everything about rockets, persevering in experiments, hoping to win a scholarship to the University through their rocket design for the Science Show. Homer's father, a coal forest supervisor, regards the coal mine as his life, hopes that his son will inherit his father's business, cannot tolerate the younger son's "improper business", and strictly prohibits Homer from conducting rocket tests within the scope of the company. The "Rocket Boys" walked more than ten kilometers to a wasteland in a neighboring town to continue their experiments, but the police determined that the fire in the forest was caused by their rockets, and the experiment was forced to be terminated. Soon after, Homer's father was injured in a coal mine accident, and Homer gave up his dream of leaving the town to work in the coal mine. Unwillingly, Homer used his spare time to frantically study once weak mathematics to calculate the trajectory of the rocket's fall, proving that the fire was not caused by their rocket. Homer returns to school, the Rocket Boys return to the "testing ground," and their rocket tests represent their high schools at science shows that earn them college scholarships.
Film critics:
If high school girls can go to "Wind and Rain Harvard Road" when they are confused, then when high school boys don't know how to stick to it, they should watch "October Sky". The world of light and shadow has never lacked inspirational stories, the poorest Harvard girls and the boys of coal forest towns, both of whom are born eager to escape poverty and who have gained life-changing opportunities by winning college scholarships. The film is originally a dream woven by light and shadow, whether it is "Wind and Rain Harvard Road" or "October Sky", it uses the stubbornness and persistence of the protagonist to create an inspirational youth version of the "American Dream". In contrast, the recent popularity of "Hot Girls at the Bottom" is more of an impassioned preaching and pure direct fight for chicken blood, like a promotional film of Keio University. The same is the story of ordinary high school students entering college, "October Sky" shows a few commonalities of Hollywood youth inspirational movies: adapted from real people and real events; with a specific big era as the background, the fate of the protagonist is closely related to the times; the regular play, from the character setting to the film structure, strictly follows the traditional Hollywood rules of drama.
Based on the autobiography of a NASA engineer, the film begins with a radio broadcast to introduce the grand background of the times, and the picture is of the coal mine where the signs of depression in the coal forest town have been revealed, and the miners listen to the radio and work with a dignified and tired expression. The successful launch of soviet satellites has panicked the townspeople, and what they are about to face is a foreseeable crisis in the coal mines on which the town depends. The director uses a blue tone to render the double uneasy atmosphere of the town, and shows the panicked inner emotions under the tired appearance of the miners with a quiet and gentle dispatch. The background of the Cold War era made the rocket test of high school student Homer rise to the height of national honor, and the success of homer's rocket experiment was a response to the Soviet Union's preemptive launch of artificial satellites by the United States during the Cold War for the townspeople. For Homer himself, the film also suffered a huge crisis at the beginning, and the lack of sports destroyed Homer's "only" way to enter the university. Instead, the Soviet satellites that caused panic to the townspeople turned his future around, and the depression of the town's coal mines made his father's expectations essentially meaningless and hopeless, and Homer, who could only accept becoming a miner after graduation, found the almost negligible one percent hope of leaving the town.
Homer and his father's wishes form the most dramatic tension in the film. Homer's ideal is to leave the town and chase the satellites that cross the sky, and his dream is to rush out of the blue sky and soar up to the clouds. The father's wish is to use the conflict between father and son to slowly uncover, and the opening chapter uses Homer's perspective and emotions to guide the audience to mistakenly think that his father does not care about Homer and is disappointed in him, until Homer goes down to work in the coal mine to realize his father's good intentions. In the face of his son's abandonment of his studies, his wife hopes that he will help educate and persuade his son to return to high school, but the father instead downplays that Homer is no longer a child - the father's abnormality exposes his inner desire for Homer, contrary to What Hosso thinks, the father thinks that he is born to be a coal miner, just like himself. Hoping to pass on his mantle to Homer, his father's expectations are evident. Homer has always longed to stay away from the coal mine, hoping that he will be deeply rooted in the ground, but he intends to soar thousands of miles away in space. The great disappointment of hope is, of course, and the contradictions between father and son naturally arise. At the end of the film, Homer wins a college scholarship for a science exhibition, and in the "farewell" experiment in the town, the father's belated reconciliation of the father-son relationship, and the father's pressing of the launch button is a symbol of his attitude changing to support Homer. The rocket soared through the clouds, which was both a symbol of Homer's future and an externalization of the transformation of father-son relationship. (Author: Li Fan)