The Movie
Well, time for a write up. The whole town is sleeping, yet i feel so fresh and alive filled with an enigmatic joy . You would wonder what has caused me to be so happy in the middle of the night . It’s all because i was able to re live my the memories of my college days and taste that feat of achievements we did when we were students. All those inspiring characters that moulded us into a better man in life.
I was watching this movie October Sky , which I had postponed for a long time for now. I always wanted to watch it as I knew it had something to do with college students and rockets. The movie is based on a true story. After watching the movie I realized that I had been missing a very nice movie that has the energy to fills us hope and can send us flying high.
The movie starts up with the space race scenario, when the Russians launch the Sputnik in to outer space. The news about Sputnik spreads like fire all across USA . Just like any other town in USA , the town of Coalwood is also taking about the Sputnik , lest they know that a boy from their town is going to become a NASA engineer . And that’s ‘Homer’, one among the group of four high school boys who are dedicated to make their dream of a sending a rocket flying high in the sky , come true.
I felt Coalwood was similar to villages in India , but unlike India, the town’s economy depends mostly on coal here. And Homer’s dad is the chief person dealing with the coal mine and who’s also the one who wants his son get his into coal business. Homer had an elder brother who is a good football player and is granted a full Scholarship under football Scholarship as he is good at sports unlike Homer.
These guys get the help of the town people and put in their diligent work to learn this rocket science. A quite few people including the school Head Master disapprove of Homer’s interest towards rockets and always discourages them.He even advises that Homer take up his dad’s profession of coal mining instead of following up his blind passion towards building rockets.
The interesting part is when the town police claims that these guys have started the forest the fire by firing their rocket . Accused of starting a fire , Homer and his buddies abandon their rocket launching, fearing an arrest . A few days later Homer’s dad gets into an accident at mine and is hospitalized. With no other option Homer is left to go to mine and work for feeding his family .
I was wondering , how would these boys be acquitted of the Forest fire case ? Just like it happened in my life and just like where i got my inspiration from , Homer gets inspired by his teacher Ms Riley.Ms Riely’s words sends Homer searching for his answers on how to prove he is not guilty and how he can restart the rocket work to enter the Science fair. He starts out with calculating the trajectory motion of the rocket and calculates the distance traveled by the rocket. He proves that the rocket had not traveled till the area of forest fire and it was caused by some other people. Charmed by the boy’s skill the headmaster takes them to the Science fair. The boys are obviously selected at the national level science fair for their ingenious work , the winner of which gets a full scholarship at many university. After all who wouldn’t want to fund such a brilliant guy.
I found that there are a lot of similarity between Coalwood and the city that I did my undergraduate from , between the character like Ms Riley and my professors and lecturers who truly inspired me and , also people like the head master of Coalwood high school and a few characters in my real life situation who never wanted us to be unconventional, between friends and brothers who worked as a team in labs and the band of boys in the film, believing in ourselves to make our dreams come true. It really did bring all those precious moments back.
The moment of Friendship, achievement, failure , mentoring , guidance , hope and everything I had felt in those four years of undergraduate was right in front of my eyes for a second.
It’s more than movie , and an inspiration to every student around saying ‘ No matter where you come from , it always what you dream and how much u believe in it’. ‘Homer’ was like any other ordinary boy from a not so famous town , but if he can do this and become a NASA Engineer training astronauts for space shuttle mission. why not us ?
Flame on
It will lift your spirit and make you feel good about all those who pursue their dreams in the face of large obstacles
Retreads the soggy ground staked out by Field of Dreams, with sentimental tears and group hugs as the answer to conflicting ideological standpoints.
Sweetness is too rare in movies these days, so audiences can feel lucky about the earnest dose of it in October Sky. This film is family.