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Reviews
October Sky (1999)
Rocket Dreams
I left this one on the shelf for a long time at Apollo Video in Clapham High Street - it was a 3 copy film (but then some dross gets 20 copies). All those other evenings wasted. What a blast !
You've got to like inspirational childrens films for adults but if you don't its worth a try. The true story of a group of High school kids from a backwoods depressed coal mining town who are inspired by Sputnick to experiment with rockets.
If you judge films by tears which I have on numerous occsions then this one is worth a good blub. The end - I can't wait to buy it on DVD for the noise to accompany the tears - is simply beautiful. The rockets are no longer toys, the boys are no longer boys.
8/10 (I rarely give 8's because we can only each have 2 or 3 nines and one 10)
Fly Away Home (1996)
Consistently drives grown men (& women) to tears
A family film .. yes but certainly one that can be watched and watched again without the need for a licensing child. Jeff Daniels is superb as an eccentric father who takes on board his daughter after his estranged wife's death in a car accident. A strong supporting cast (including geese) are driven to support Amy's desire to assist a bunch of orphaned geese to maintain a wild existence. This involves teaching the geese to fly and leading them South by air. This journey for both the daughter coping with grief after the loss of her mother, the father in discovering his daughter once more and the geese in finding a new home for the Winter adds up to .. well tears and more tears.
Before you write this film off as "fantasy" take the time to watch the BBC's Life of Birds final part. There you meet a remarkable farmer from the US who is using a microlite to aid a few of the last remaining Whooping Cranes to re-establish migratory patterns.
In the UK the site of skeins of wild geese migrating in Winter form their Summer homes in Iceland and the Arctic circle is one of the last great wildlife dramas left on this small island. The views in Fly away Home of Amy's geese as they move in to join the hundreds of wild geese powering South capture this majesty. This story of a group of people who care about and assist this natural pattern may help reinforce some of the awe that we should all feel when confronted with these epic and annual journeys.