October Sky **** (1999, Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Chris Owen) – Classic Movie Review 12,745

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in Joe Johnston’s 1999 biopic October Sky as American boy Homer Hickam, who sees the launch of a Sputnik in 1957 and wants to build his own rocket, but his gloomy coal-mining dad (Chris Cooper) is dead set against it.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in Joe Johnston’s 1999 American biographical drama film October Sky as Homer Hickam, a 1950s American boy, who sees the launch of a Sputnik in 1957 and wants to build his own rocket, but his gloomy coal-mining dad (Chris Cooper) is dead set against it.

October Sky is a very sweet, well-meaning feel-good movie from real life (it’s based on Hickam’s memoir book Rocket Boys) that delivers the emotional goods with the help of a slew of fine performances and attentive direction by Johnston. Laura Dern plays the encouraging local teacher, Miss Freida J Riley.

October Sky is a total pleasure that really gets to you and raises the spirits.

The cast are Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer Hickam, Chris Cooper as John Hickam, Chris Owen as Quentin Wilson, Laura Dern as Miss Freida J Riley, William Lee Scott as Roy Lee Cooke, Chad Lindberg as Sherman O’Dell, Natalie Canerday as Elsie Hickam, Scott Thomas [Scott Miles] as Jim Hickam, Randy Stripling as Leon Bolden, Chris Ellis as Principal Turner, Elya Baskin as Ike Bykovsky, Winston Link as railroad engineer, Andy Stahl as Jack Palmer, Mark Jeffrey Miller as Vernon, and Don Henderson Baker as Jensen.

October Sky is directed by Joe Johnston, runs 108 minutes, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by Lewis Colick, based on Homer Hickam’s book Rocket Boys, is shot by Fred Murphy, is produced by Charles Gordon and Larry J Franco, and is scored by Mark Isham.

Filming began on 23 February 1998 in Tennessee, though the film is set in West Virginia.

Gyllenhaal, was only 17 years old while filming, the same age as his character. Gyllenhaal was tutored on set as he was still taking advanced classes in school.

Chris Owen is best known for his role as Chuck Sherman, aka The Sherminator in the American Pie franchise. In 2014, Owen was working as a waiter at a sushi restaurant in Santa Monica, California. Owen said: ‘Life doesn’t always go the way you planned. I love acting and this job lets me stay in the fight.’

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,745

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