Posted on 02/23/2007 10:41:24 AM PST by Species8472
It’s a story that should be familiar to any space exploration enthusiast.
In spite of the obstacles, including the laws of physics, political pressure and a limiting budget, a small but spirited group launches their dreams. It’s the story behind the current New Space movement. It’s the story behind NASA’s past and future.
It’s the story of “The Astronaut Farmer.”
Charles Farmer -- portrayed with just the right mix of quirkiness and sentimentality by actor Billy Bob Thornton [image] -- was well on his way to being an astronaut when he gave up on his dream of flying in space to return to his family’s Texas ranch [image]. Years later, he is married to a supportive and beautiful wife (Virginia Madsen) and together they have three children.
Farmer’s fascination with space is far from a distant memory, though. His first born, a son, is named Shepard after the nation’s first astronaut. Farmer has acquired his own vintage spacesuit, which he is happy to wear for a visit to his daughter’s classroom.
And oh yes, he’s built a rocket in his barn [image].
Not a model rocket, of the type many astronaut-hopefuls build and launch from cardboard tubes and balsa wood fins, but a towering, faithful and hopefully working replica of NASA’s first man-rated orbital booster, the Mercury-Atlas.
It is here that we, the audience, join Farmer as “The Astronaut Farmer” begins. We don’t know how he built the rocket, though we learn it was at a great expense. And if his financial troubles aren’t enough of a challenge, Farmer has just drawn the attention of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which doesn’t quite know what to make of the ex-astronaut turned cattle rancher, but is adamant about dashing any dreams of Farmer’s rocket ever leaving the ground. ---Snip---
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
It does look like a good movie with a good message.
Would you ping the spacers please!
My husband who hasn't been to a movie theater in over 10 years wants to go see this. Thanks for the post.
Some reviews have been mixed; Boston Herald gave it a C +
but the reviewer, Jim Verniere, is a big lib (yes that's
right, despite it being the Herald)
"...the film is a populist, conservative fable about keeping the faith and being right when everyone says you’re wrong. It features Billy Bob Thornton as a Texas rancher with a dream and a tightly knit, loving family. George W. Bush, do I have a movie for you."
He pronounces it as "Capra-Corn"
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/movieReviews/view.bg?articleid=184455
...who knows, could be a good movie but the lib movie critics out there may well pan it.
The reviews I am seeing suggest a pattern:
Whiny-ass socialist coward babies who hate America tend to diss this movie.
Red state reviewers - those who don't read San Fag Chronicle - tend to like it.
Personally, I can't wait to see it. I think it's going to be awesome!!!
He pronounces it as "Capra-Corn""
Any reviewer who dismisses Capra is FOS.
>>Whiny-ass socialist coward babies who hate America tend to diss this movie.
Yup and that is Jim Verniere...he prob loves Dixie Chicks
movie
If America is such a bad country why does everybody try to move here (esp. illegally?)!
Filmed largely in New Mexico, a local diner figures in the film.
Wild Hogs was largely filmed in Madrid NM.
Sunshine Cleaners is currently being filmed here, and the sporting goods store scenes were filmed at Charlie's, where I get my gun stuff.
Kim Basinger did some filming at a local Roadhouse near me, the Ponderosa.
Just us New Mexicans doing the jobs the whiny libs in Hollywood don't want to. :)
Zephran Cocheran, inventor of Warp drive?
Back in 1985 they filmed "Runaway Train" in my little community here in Alaska. Got to meet Jon Voight, Eric Roberts and Rebecca DeMorney(sp?). Nice folks, hung out with the locals a lot. Great experience and a great movie.
Wasn't this made for tv in the 1980s as Salvage One?
The only message I got from the tv commercial was when Billy Bob Thorton (D/Bad Santa) tells the government men that he isn't making WMD because they wouldn't have found him if he was.
I won't even watch the trailer for this film anymore. That ignorant line about not being able to find WMD boils my blood.
Damn fools.
I love "Runway Train". One of my favorite lines is "I hope you don't like it and want to do something about it." Turning green with envy that you got to hang with that crew, especialy Rebecca DeMornay.
http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/timelines/mars_1700-1959.html
1955
Conquest of Space -- Based on the book The Mars Project by Werner von Braun, this Byron Haskin-directed, George Pal-produced movie originally featured a story line that would take viewers to Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. But budget cuts scale the mission down to just Mars, foreshadowing, however ironically, what will happen in real planetary exploration efforts. Nevertheless, while the action is oftentimes limp and the religious overtones are by now clichéd, the visuals of the planet itself-created by astronomical painter Chelsey Bonestell-are impressive. Even so, as movies go, it is a financial disaster and, according to some reviewers, marks the end of an era of so-called realist space films until 2001 in 1968.
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