The Astronaut Farmer

Posted by Tara Settembre (tara@filmschoolrejects.com) on February 20, 2007

The Astronaut FarmerThe astronaut farmer in The Astronaut Farmer is not only a real farmer but his name is too — Charles Farmer, played by Billy Bob Thornton in this heart-warming inspirational film about determination and pursuing your dreams. Usually such inspirationally themed stories are centered on sports feats as with Invincible or Rudy, but rather than the journey toward a championship, The Astronaut Farmer is about the dream of space exploration.

Although, the film’s producer Len Amato notes that the film isn’t necessarily about space travel either, but is “a story about overcoming obstacles, it can apply to any accomplishment where there’s always a certain amount of doubt and a chorus of naysayers and you have to push through with you own vision to make something where there was nothing before.”

The plot focuses on Charles Farmer and his obsession with making it into space. He had been an engineer and Air Force Pilot but was forced to retire from the NASA Astronaut training program so he could save his family farm after the passing of his father. Decades later now that he is a dad too, he still can’t give up his dream of space travel and employs his engineering skills and builds his own rocket ship. His wife (Virginia Madsen), and three charming children–two young girls and a 15-year-old boy eager to be his father’s “ground control” are all invested in Farmer’s dream too and believe he’ll launch his rocket and himself into space despite the financial costs and the criticism of outsiders.

Besides the cost and skepticism, another problem arises when he tries to buy 10,000 gallons of high-grade fuel. The FBI and FAA now consider him a threat to national security and have him put under surveillance and scrutiny, causing the media to also camp out on the family farm to see the rocket man and his renegade project. In this respect, he is defending his freedoms and taking on big government, becoming a citizen vs. government story as well.

However, despite the obstacles Farmer is determined to chase his dream and show his kids that you never give up and that dreams are possible.

The film is charming and I easily became invested in the story and quirky characters. However, I found Virginia Madsen’s constant bubblyness to be annoying. That aside, the acting overall is strong. I was also surprised and excited to see a cameo from Billy Bob’s Armageddon and Bandits co-star Bruce Willis, since he isn’t credited for this film or shown in the trailers, but he plays a NASA astronaut with his own agenda. Actor Bruce Dern also stars in the film as Farmer’s father in-law.

The film is set in Texas on a beautiful ranch and the directors never forget this fact and show lots of beautiful scenery shots, not usually expected in such films. As for the special effects, without giving away too much, the sound in the theater made my seat feel like it was rumbling inside a rocket as well when ever they turned on the rocket’s engines.


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  • John Toradze
    This is a very silly movie with multiple basketball sized pills to swallow, that somehow succeeds on the basis of the acting and ...

    Major biffs: Rocket takes off from a hole dug inside a barn? The hole has no exit ports, and there is no launch pad cooling system, which means that huge blowtorch called a rocket engine would probably melt the exhaust nozzles of the rocket. The barn is wood, and it doesn't catch fire. A rocket with a burn that will put it in orbit going sideways? Would not be survivable unless the astronaut hit the excape button. (Why not do that? Authentic, and more dramatic to do that.) He has no lawsuits after his rocket takes out the gate where the journalists were waiting and goes off over the landscape? Come now. In America?

    But, it had a certain something. I was surprised at the end how many people were in the theater. I think it shows how interested in space travel for ordinary people we are.

    Would have been better if they had talked to Orbital Sciences and featured Orbital's new rocket engine that can burn inside plexiglass and you can put your hand on it and it feels cool. And there is that engineer down in Solvang who built an amazing carbon fiber composite rocket to compete for the X-Prize. He should have been the model for the guy in the movie. He really did almost everything the Charlie Farmer character did. Or at least his rocket should have been in the movie. The movie budget could easily have finished that guy's rocket and actually flown it even. Now how cool would THAT have been. And talk about publicity!

    There are real people out there building real rockets that look like something transported in time from the future. Wasn't necessary to use the Atlas design. Reality is so much better than that. So the movie could have been much better than it was. But it still somehow succeeds.
  • Charlie Farmer
    Response to Mr. Toradze:
    If you're so smart (even though you spelled escape, e-x-c-a-p-e), why don't you build a rocket?
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