The Poppy-Fields Movie Couch Of Fame: October Sky
Photo: Universal
Reader Mike counts us down.
The PFM CoF is back with another reader submission, as Mike makes the case for October Sky:
Well I’m an aerospace engineer so I guess I’m required to like this one, but still, I totally do. Every time I watch it, it makes me want to go back to work and do more rocket science…
- lengthy? So-so at 109 minutes. It does make good use of all of them, though.
- familiar/frequent? I somehow managed to see this three times in a month last year, but it’s a little more uncommon on the regular channels.
- classic/award-winner? [“No, but did score a screenplay nom from the WGA.” — SDB]
- “Greetings, Professor Falken” (big payoff/long-shot victory a la WarGames)? Oh of course, they do win the science fair after all!
- “Wanna have a catch?” (Pavlovian tear-jerk; anything with dads opens the ducts for this guy)? The bit at the end where his dad launches the rocket, and the whole town sees it, and Laura Dern is lying in bed all dying, and oh god it is SO CHEESY and yet I’m tearing up a bit just typing this…
- quote-fest? …
- caper-ish or -adjacent camaraderie? Especially the bit where they are running around town pilfering stuff to build the rocket test site (and the part where they try to steal the railroad tracks).
- “forget you, melon farmer” (you own it, but will still watch bowdlerized TV verzh) There was one GEICO ad that I can still sing the music from because I saw it so many goddamn times.
Haven’t seen this one either, but I remember seeing it in the listings on a weekly basis, and I’m betting those of you who like you some young Gyllenhaal have seen it a bunch. Is it a poppy-fields movie? Let’s find out!
The Poppy-Fields Movie Couch Of Fame is here. To nominate your own PFM, email bunting at tomatonation dot com with a rundown of the criteria and your argument for why it deserves a cushion. If I use your entry, free loot shall be thine.
Tags: Chris Cooper Jake Gyllenhaal Laura Dern movies October Sky poppy-fields movies
For years, this movie was my only exposure to Gyllenhaal. This is a movie that my mom bought because she and her husband liked watching it, and we watched every time I’d visit.
The plot is structured like a million other movies, so it won’t surprise you, but the performances are all so on point; Jake’s earnest without being treacly, Chris is flinty without being hard, Laura’s encouraging without being perky.
Plus, it’s a good reminder of how awful coal-mining is as a job and an industry.
It’s really weird how Jake Gyllenhall was sort of a duplicate Tobey Maguire, but now is really *really* not that.
Who?
(hee. You’re so right. I don’t think I would have bet the Gyllenpony back then, either. And what IS Maguire up to these days?)
I wouldn’t have thought of this movie as a HoFer, but it’s really a good flick. (Haven’t gotten around to reading the book to see how it compares) It’s a quieter movie with less bombast that the presence of Chris Cooper might suggest and it’s really easy to root for the Rocket Boys.
The bit that I quote often is not so much specific language, as it is this part:
Nerdy Kid: (technobabble)
Other Kid: “He says it needs to have more fuel, but can’t be any wider.”
Machinist: “Why not make it longer?”
Nerdy Kid: (technobabble)
Other Kid: “Good idea, let’s do it.”
Here is another surprising choice for me. But it’s really on me, because I LOVE Jake and yet have never seen this film.
Love it!
Cooper really sells it. As much as you can’t stand what he does, you believe HIS belief that he’s doing it for the right reasons. Even before the, “Wanna have a catch,” moment, it’s hard not to sympathize with him.
Has any other actor had as many Science Fair scenes in his early career? The Day After Tomorrow doesn’t stand up to October Sky, but still…I admit to watch it’s silliness more than once, and not for Mr. Eyebrows.
Oh lordy, if you haven’t read Homer Hickam’s Coalwood trilogy–please do so. Fascinating, heartbreaking and hopeful all at the same time. He also has a website and newsletter at http://www.homerhickam.com/ He’s also written a number of kids/young adult fiction. As a library volunteer I point boys (and girls) towards these all the time because it seems it’s so much harder to engage boys in anything besides graphic novels and comic books. Full disclosure: as long as they’re reading I’m fine with it being GNs and CBs.
Oh, and the movie is a long time favorite! Can kids even get rocket kits today?