Introduction

October Sky is an outstanding movie, released on 19 February 1999 by the producer Charles Gordon and was directed by Joe Johnston in the United States. The film presents the story of a boy who in pursuit of his dreams to become a scientist, fights with the destiny set by his father for him. As the miners do not enjoy the everyday life and are surrounded by the isolation and death, Homer Hicker wanted to do something different from his father. As he was inspired by the launch of the first Sputnik since his childhood, he made it his hobby to study about the space shuttles and working on rocket experiments with his friends. Contradicting the wishes of his father to be miner like him, he managed to become a scientist at NASA after his untiring efforts.

Discussion

"October Sky" is an anagram of “Rocket Boys ". It is the title of the book on which the film is based. The term was also used in the United States, broadcasting to describe the Sputnik as it crossed the October Sky. Homer Hickam stated from the outset that women over 30 years would not go to a movie titled Rocket Boys, so Universal Pictures changed the title of the film in order to capture a wider audience. The book then re-released under the name of October Sky to capitalize on the interest that was raised by the film. The movie is set in the late 1950's after the Sputnik was launched into the space on October 5, 1957. The film is set in Coalwood, West Virginia and has shown only limited places such as Welsh and Snake Root. The film describes the coal mine as the largest source of employment for the people of Coalwood. All the men living there, works in the same coal mine. Similarly, all the kids of this region are set to work there as well. John Hickam, the role played by actor Chris Cooper, is the father of Homer Hickam and is the superintendent of the mine. He loves his work, despite the headaches and hazards inherent with the coal mine. He also hope that his children, Jim Hickam, played by Scott Miles II and Homer Hickam, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, will work there someday. However, their mother Elsie was not in the favor of this idea. She wanted her children to receive good education and achieve position in some organization. When it seems that Jim will receive a college scholarship to play football, she encourages him to go for that (Ronald, 23).

As the film has shown the experiment of soviet space shuttle Sputnik that took place in 1957, the residents of Coalwood gather outside their homes in an October night with a starry sky to observe the satellite cross the sky. When the kids of the Coalwood observe this experiment, they dreamt about making the same space shuttle and make their way out of this coal mine to the brighter future. As they set the goal of ...