The Astronaut Farmer
by Michael Polish
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DVD details
Actor: Billy Bob Thornton, Jasper Polish, Logan Polish, Max Thieriot, Virginia MadsenDirector: Michael Polish
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-10
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of The Astronaut Farmer
DVD Review: Impractical and misleading movie
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie is about a farmer's fantasy of going in space. This is like those movies in which one person has this obsession with something and whole world is against him. He manages despite the opposition. No matter how ridiculous and dangerous the idea, film writers want the hero to get his way.
This movie has several aspects which are not possible. For example, a rocket blasts off from a wooden barn. Twice. Both the times the rocket leaves flames and smoke behind. But the barn stands unaffected.
In a scene when an official threatens him, the hero asks 'Is it a threat?', the official says 'You are a threat'. I agree with the official's point of view. When first time the rocket fires, it moves through a barrage of journalists.
This kind of thinking that 'I know what I am doing, and it is safe' is not workable. Yes, he has a 350 acre farm and he is doing this experiment away from population. But what if his rocket explodes above a metropolitan area? Such kind of thinking takes care of only happy side, while NASA, which runs a professional organization, thinks about all possible failure scenarios. That is why NASA needs millions.
If the film director was trying to make a point that NASA is a waste of money, and space can be conquered by anyone who has a million dollar, an engineering degree, a large farm, then the director failed miserably in making that point.
I should definitely give credit for showing family unity; support from a wife to her husband's 'crazy idea'; small community support etc. All that makes this movie palpable if one is willing to keep aside pragmatism.
My kids did enjoy it a lot. There are no f words in this movie. Some s words, and some sob words. But other than that the film seems to be clean for family viewing.
DVD Review: One of Billy Bob Thornton's best films since Sling Blade!!! A top "flight" family film!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great film,it's about a family man who builds a rocket in his barn and actually gets it to work,yes NASA spends oodles of our tax payers dollars and this guy(Billy Bob)does the same thing for next to nothing using money he raised himself!!! A great family film!!! Kinda think of this film as Field of Dreams with rockets instead of a baseball field!!! One the best newer films i've seen in a long long time!!! There are a few nice extras on the disc too!!! The supporting cast is stellar too,Virginia Madsen,JK Simmons,Bruce Dern,Tim Blake Nelson, and a suprise unbilled appearence by Bruce Willis!also give great performances!!! They don't make many films like these anymore!!! Recommended!!! A+DVD Review: Good, Old-Fashioned Family Picture, Not Entirely Engaging Though
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Astronaut Farmer" is a family picture with a simple, heartfelt message: Dreams will come true. The most unique thing about the film is, however, the dream itself the film's protagonist Charles Farmer (played by Billy Bob Thornton, wonderful as always) has - Charles, a former pilot who was once trained to be an astronaut at NASA, but was forced to retire before flying, builds a rocket on his own, spending ten years and every dollar his family could save.
Another unique part of the film is the film's time setting. Charles Farmer's handmade rocket may look very old-fashioned, but the film's story is set in modern-day, post-9/11 America. So FBI interferes when Farmer tries to buy rocket fuel (10,000 gallons), considering him dangerous to the country. Still overall tone of the film remains optimistic throughout. Mr. Farmer is under watch of the agents, but they are described with a low-key comic touch. Bruce Willis briefly shows up as an astronaut (reminding us of "Armageddon" in which Billy Bob Thornton also appears). This is one of the film's very amusing moments.
But you may not like some parts of the film. Reviewers have rightly pointed out that "The Astronaut Farmer" ignores so many technical details about going to the space, but I think our willing suspension of disbelief is tested by the attitudes of Mr. Farmer himself towards the people surrounding him, rather than by the overlong climax, its implausibility or scientific background.
I say this because I think there is another story, or version of the story said above, which directors the Polish Brothers should have considered. You might think Charles Farmer is in fact putting his family in danger, financially and even physically. In one scene some people are nearly killed, which justifies the government's action to stall his flight. If for all Billy Bob Thornton's fine acting I couldn't relate to him as much as the film wants us to, this should be the reason.
But the three children are corporative. The boy is ready to help his father all the time. His wife (Virginia Madsen) is naturally (and rightly) worried, but she understands. Charles is never given a real task that is more challenging than outwitting FBI, CIA and FAA. He doesn't really have to deal with the downside of his dream. "October Sky," which has a similar theme, at least suggests there is another side of chasing your dream by showing Chris Cooper's father figure and contrasting it with his boy's to show the convincing father-and-son conflict.
Or maybe I am taking this film too seriously. But perhaps I should take the matter seriously when happiness of the members of my family is at stake. Certainly this is a feel-good picture with a simple story. But maybe you will find things are not that simple as the film shows.
DVD Review: never give up
Summary: 5 Stars
this movie was very good, this movie send a good message about not giving up on what you believe. it was a charm. people should check it out.DVD Review: Absolutley Awful
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm sorry. this film sucks. I turned it off after a half hour and thatr was being kind. Unlikeable characters, unabsorbing story and laughable setups. Truly disappointing. Godd idea, terribly esecuted. A misfire on every level. Billy Bob is much than this drivel.
Description of The Astronaut Farmer
All systems are "Go" for Charles Farmer. He's faced bank foreclosure, neighborhood naysayers and a government alarmed by his huge purchase of high-grade fuel, but now he's ready to blast into space inside the homemade rocket he built in his barn. Just be home in time for dinner, Charlie. Billy Bob Thornton portrays Charlie in this charmer about chasing dreams...and about what it means to be a family. 10,000 pounds of rocket fuel alone can't lift Charlie into the heavens. He needs a launch/recovery crew, and he has one of the best: his wife (Virginia Madsen) and children, dreamers all. They have liftoff. Our spirits have uplift. Gravity cannot hold down our dreams. The Astronaut Farmer is that kind of movie.DVD Features:
Featurette
Outtakes
If you can give The Astronaut Farmer the big, bounding leap of faith it requires, you'll probably enjoy this good-natured film about the importance of holding on to your dreams. The title character (and the dreamer in question) is Charlie Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton), a Texas ranch owner and former aeronautics engineer who's got a homemade rocket in his barn and a dream to blast into space. Even though Charlie's deeply in debt and threatened with foreclosure, his wife (Virginia Madsen) and kids are deeply supportive of Charlie's Earth-orbit mission, even when he attracts the glaring attention of a seasoned Air Force colonel (played by Bruce Willis, in an uncredited role), the FAA, the FBI, and the national media. "If we don't have our dreams, we have nothing," says Charlie at a particularly desperate impasse, and this loopy, offbeat, and unabashedly sentimental drama embraces that message with disarming sincerity.
Suspension of disbelief is a challenge when the movie glosses over so many of its logistical details (like, where does one buy an old NASA space capsule?), and in trying for a kind of Capra-esque, eccentrically Western spin on the American dream, the Polish twins--director Michael and cowriter/actor Mark (making their mainstream debut after such indie hits as Twin Falls, Idaho and Northfork)--are only marginally successful in making Charlie's ambition genuinely believable. The film works much better as a kind of post space-age fable for families, and it's just involving enough to make its climax emotionally rewarding, mostly because Thornton, Madsen, and their costars (including Bruce Dern and Tim Blake Nelson) handle the delicate material with the earnestness it needs to be marginally convincing. Elton John's "Rocket Man" is predictably heard over the closing credits (accordingly, Charlie's launch-time is "zero hours, nine a.m."), and at a time when several adventurous entrepreneurs (including Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos) are gradually developing a civilian space-flight industry, The Astronaut Farmer is an admirable yet forgivably flawed reminder that we should never stop reaching for the stars. --Jeff Shannon
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