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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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Seen, Heard, Noted & Quoted
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by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B+ Rated PG 104 min
The grandiose premise of this movie is about an ordinary man, Charles Farmer, (Billy Bob Thornton) who, against all odds and government interference, pursues his dream of flying into space and orbiting the earth. The theme cries out: Live the impossible dream if you dare but be prepared to defend your dream against conventional wisdom and government road blocks.
Written and directed by Michael and Mark Polish, the story harkens back to the Wright Brothers who, in 1903, flew the first powered aircraft at a time when no one believed it was even possible. The underlying theme is about how NASA and the FBI, portrayed as bloated government bureaucracies, bullied Farmer with threats of sending missiles into his staging area if he continued with his mission. Thematically, the story is about a brilliant private citizen beating Big Brother.
Virginia Madsen skillfully portrays Charles Farmer’s dutiful wife Audrey, who seems implausibly supportive even when she discovers Charles mortgaged the farm to the tune of $600,000 to pay for his rocket project and the property is on the verge of foreclosure. Bruce Dern plays her elderly father who supports Farmer’s crazy space mission.
Farmer’s story began when he was hired by NASA as an astronaut. Sadly, he was forced to retire to save his father’s farm, consequently he never got his space flight. Using his extensive knowledge of rocketry, Farmer bought scrap parts from a NASA salvage yard including a Mercury project rocket engine and a Mercury capsule. He assembled his rocket to the exact specifications of an early missile design in his barn with a retractable roof.
Working against time, Farmer feels he has to complete his mission before he is served with foreclosure papers. He pulls his kids out of school, including his brilliant son, Shepard (Max Thieriot) who is helping his father with the project and is dad’s mission control manager. He makes the family his mission support crew.
With the bank and the FBI on his back, Farmer calls in the media to protect him from government interference. The story takes off like his rocket and he becomes a media darling. However, money is a problem. Farmer even tries to sell advertising space on his rocket to pay the bills, but no one wants to back his project if he fails and is killed. At this point in the story, an unexpected event takes place that sets back Farmer’s dream.
Through it all, viewers will be rooting for the underdog to complete his mission. However, setback after setback plague the project. When a famous astronaut visits Farmer, he ridicules him for taking on an impossible task. Farmer is crushed by the astronaut’s attitude since he thought that the astronaut of all people would understand his dream.
The Polish brother’s script goes off on a tangent in the middle of the film, but gets back to the central theme about Farmer’s close family supports his revolutionary idea. The scenario alludes to the government’s fear that if Farmer is successful, every rocket enthusiast in the country will aspire to build their own space rocket and make NASA look foolish because of its inability to keep costs down. It would prove that private space companies (that do exist) can send ordinary citizens into space at a fraction of the cost that NASA is spending.
Billy Bob Thornton’s laid-back portrayal of Farmer’s determination to complete his mission gives the film credibility. Thornton’s salt-of-the-earth Farmer is an inspiration to young people to never give up their dream, even if the entire government is against it. The Polish brother’s family unity theme is the glue that holds their scenario together. In other words, the gospel that love conquers all enabled Farmer to pursue his dream.
For aspiring aerospace engineers, this story serves as motivation to get through college and pursue space flight as a private endeavor. That is the future with the new private companies setting up shop providing low cost space vehicles for satellite and manned launches–even space tourism.
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