Day 95 - 4/5/09 - Movie #93
BEFORE: Back to Billy Bob Thornton films (this strategy will make sense soon, I promise...)
THE PLOT: A NASA astronaut, forced to retire years earlier, has never give up his dream of space travel and looks to build his own rocket, despite the government's threats to stop him.
AFTER: It's an inspiring film, probably completely implausible (as far as I know...) but still endearing. The guys on "Mythbusters" could probably get a month's worth of shows out of explaining why a guy probably can't launch into space with a rocket built in his barn. Billy Bob is pretty emotionless, but there's a reason for it, to contrast with events later in the film. Good supporting cast of Bruce Willis, Bruce Dern, Tim Blake Nelson and J.K. Simmons.
RATING: 8 out of 10 orbits
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What a crapburger. Guys? Thank you. WE GET IT. The "silly dreamer" without whom our society would never move ahead; David versus Goliath; Da Gummint, Dey Don't Wan' Us Plain Folks To Get Too Much Of Them Big Idears...yes, you made your point.
ReplyDeleteI was honestly cheering for Billy Bob to be burned to death while fueling the rocket. But that would have had some sort of convergence with the reality of an Atlas rocket, so it had no place in this film.
Honestly! So it wasn't enough that Da Gummint be opposed to Joe the Plumber -- er, Joe The Astronaut -- the filmmakers _really_ had to do that big public hearing scene with Da Gummint arranging themselves on the stage of the CafeGymnaTorium and force him to sit at a little table at center court?
I guess I'm an idiot; I shore wouldna got the point that Da Gummint thinks little of honest, hardworking, independent citizens like me unless they really drove the point home like that.
I haven't even gotten into the idiotic interpretations of science in this movie. An Atlas rocket tips over during launch and you know what happens? The tanks rupture and several acres of launchpad are enveloped in a fireball. Or, it spins and lawndarts into the ground, before the fireball.
What DOES NOT happen: it simply shrugs its shoulders and agrees to fly horizontally, skimming over the hills straight as an arrow.
Honest to God, when the capsule broke off and tumbled a mile across the fields at hundreds of miles an hour, I immediately thought "OK, this is a dream sequence; the idiot's wife wakes up panting and sweating and is now resolved to talk him out of this suicidal plan."
Because how _dumb_ do you have to be to imagine that anyone could survive?
Dumb enough to buy a ticket to this movie?
Rant, rant, rant. Anyway. I was present when the first private civilian astronaut flew into space and returned safely. Da Gummint did nothing to stop Burt Rutan's team at Scaled Composites. In fact, at the start of the press conference, astronaut Mike Melvill was presented with the very first set of civilian astronaut wings...by a giddy and happy senior official from the FAA.
Da Gummint is doing everything it can to encourage civilians to build their own space vehicles. All they ask is that you not be an ignorant moron and a danger to yourself and others.
"The Astronaut Farmer" is meant to be a stirring inspiration and a paean to the indefatigable American spirit. Instead, it's a tribute to the Darwin Awards.