Product Details

• Actors: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Chris Owen, William Lee Scott
• Directors: Joe Johnston
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Original recording reissued, Special Edition, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: February 15, 2000
• Run Time: 153 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (313 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0783240694
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,292 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  Video > Drama > Family Life > Fathers & Sons

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Based on the memoir Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam Jr., October Sky emerged as one of the most delightful sleepers of 1999--a small miracle of good ol' fashioned movie-making in the cynical, often numbingly trendy Hollywood of the late 20th century. Hickam's true story begins in 1957 with Russia's historic launch of the Sputnik satellite, and while Homer (played with smart idealism by Jake Gyllenhaal) sees Sputnik as his cue to pursue a fascination with rocketry, his father (Chris Cooper) epitomizes the admirable yet sternly stubborn working-man's ethic of the West Virginia coal miner, casting fear and disdain on Homer's pursuit of science while urging his "errant" son to carry on the family business--a spirit-killing profession that Homer has no intention of joining.

As directed by Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer), this wonderful movie is occasionally guilty of overstating its case and sacrificing subtlety for predictable melodrama. But more often the film's tone is just right, and the spirit of adventure and invention is infectiously conveyed through Gyllenhaal and his well-cast fellow rocketeers, whose many failures gradually lead to triumph on their makeshift backwoods launching pad. Capturing time and place with impeccable detail and superbly developed characters (including Laura Dern as an inspiring schoolteacher), October Sky is a family film for the ages, encouraging the highest potential of the human spirit while giving viewers a clear view of a bygone era when "the final frontier" beckoned to the explorer in all of us. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

An inspirational story of a fairly conventional sort-four boys stuck in a West Virginia coal town in 1957 begin playing around with rockets and compete for a science prize-has been made into something square but stirring by filmmakers who get the look and shape of things right. The skies are gray, and a wrought-iron tipple sits at the mouth of the mine like a gallows. The boys, expected by their elders to sacrifice their lives to coal mining when they graduate from high school, escape by sending up the little projectiles they've made, which sometimes explode, sometimes whirl about in circles, and occasionally soar straight up; when that happens, director Joe Johnston, imitating Steven Spielberg, makes the awestruck spectators rise into the frame, mouths open, eyes wide. The little rockets become the poetry of a depressed community. With Jake Gyllenhaal as the leader of the boys and the leathery, serious Chris Cooper as his heroic dad. Screenwriter Lewis Colick adapted the recent memoir "Rocket Boys," by retired NASA engineer Homer Hickam, Jr. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tell your friends about this movie, February 29, 2000

By	Randolph S. Perry (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: October Sky (Special Ed. with Clam Shell Case) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I'd seen the October Sky DVD at the local video store, but avoided it--I imagine because I didn't know much about it and because I'd read it was just a "family" movie and figured it wouldn't be very interesting. Well, I finally rented it, and now I see why so many of the reviewers here have raved about it. I won't go into the story--others here have. I'll just say that October Sky is simply a wonderful story, and it's very well told in this movie--script, direction, and cast are all first rate, the photography is beautiful, and the score evocative. It even captured our thirteen year old son's attention--not a small feat for a movie with a PG rating. My guess is you'll be thinking about Coalwood, West Virgina, and its people for a while after seeing this movie. (I should add I ended up buying both the DVD and Rocket Boys (also published as October Sky), the book on which the movie is based. The book is great, too.)

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An undiscovered jewel of a film., July 30, 2002

By	Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Not everybody will like this film. Three people out of the one hundred and seventy five reviewers here didn't like it. And fifteen more out of the remaining one hundred and seventy two gave it three or four stars, leaving one hundred and fifty seven who thought this an absolutely great movie against eighteen who didn't.

So I think I'm safe enough to say you'll like this movie even if reading about it doesn't make it sound that exciting. The bottom line is that this movie is so very human. The boys who are obsessed with rockets are normal, every day boys sparked with enthusiasm about what can be done. They are following their own stars, their own sense of what is right for them, against the opposition of those who don't understand.

And so, there is a story for each and every one here, a very real story about following your own star, not somebody else's. Yes, it's a feel good movie, but it achieves this through the power of the true story, not out of viewer manipulation.

Very highly recommended.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My inspiration, January 1, 2000

By	Victor I. (Jersey City, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: October Sky (DVD)

Do you feel constrained in your job? Are you an unhappy student? Then this movie is for you. I first watched the rental and I was deeply touched and inspired by it. I right away decided that this movie is worth owning, so I bought myself a copy. I don't regret it. Every time I watch it, it makes me re-evaluate my life and inspires me to go after what I value most. It makes me realize that I, too, can do what most people will tell me is impossible. It inspires me to keep trying and keep dreaming. You must own this movie so it touches and inspires everyone who visits your home.