October Sky
Movie Review by: Joshua Micheltree, Kodiak College, Alaska

October Sky is a movie that was set in a small coalmining town. The town only exists because of the coal mine. The manager of the coal mine, John Hickman, has a son, Homer Hickman, who has come to the realization that he will not follow in his brother's footsteps as a football player. Homer was intrigued one evening by the Russian's first satellite, Sputnik, as it orbited through the sky. That sparked an interest in him to build a rocket. Homer and three of his friends begin trying to learn the science of rocketry. While avoiding Homers' father, the principal, and the police, they manage to finally succeed in building a few rockets. Homer and his friends do such a great job with building rockets that they win the national science fair and are awarded scholarships to college.

One of the educational themes in the movie was a teacher who believed in a student when no one else would. The teacher in the movie, Ms. Riley, buys homer a book to further his education that he would not get by just attending the high school. With this help Homer is able to hone in his rocket building abilities.

Another educational theme is a student who will do anything to accomplish his goal. Homer spends many hours studying and practicing to reach his goal of building a rocket. He pulls information in from any source he can, whether in the town or with writing to famous rocket scientists.