The Astronaut Farmer - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Astronaut Farmer is a 2006 American drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

directed by Michael Polish, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Mark. The story focuses on a Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

ranch

Ranch

A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...

er who constructs a rocket

Rocket

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...

in his barn and, against all odds, launches himself into outer space

Outer space

Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....

Plot

Charles Farmer is a former astronaut

Astronaut

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

-in-training who was discharged from the military before he could fulfill his dream of becoming a vital part of NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

. Having missed the opportunity to travel into space, he decides to build a replica of the historic Mercury-Atlas

Mercury-Atlas

Mercury-Atlas was a subprogram of Project Mercury which comprised most of the flights and tests using the Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle. The Atlas was also used for one Mercury flight under the Big Joe subprogram.- Mission numbering :...

in the barn on his secluded ranch in the fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

al town of Story, Texas, using all his assets and facing foreclosure

Foreclosure

Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...

as a result. When he begins making inquiries about purchasing rocket fuel, the FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

and FAA

Federal Aviation Administration

The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

step in to investigate, and the ensuing publicity thrusts Farmer into the spotlight and makes him a media darling.

Farmer's first launch is delayed by endless red tape created by government officials, who seek to stall him beyond his deadline to foreclose on the farm. Farmer is denied the fuel he wishes, which would be liquid hydrogen. His ranch facing financial ruin, he panics and somehow launches his rocket before it is ready and without the proper fuel. His rocket falls over and horizontally blasts out of an old wooden barn.

Farmer nearly dies with head trauma and other injuries after his capsule is thrown from the rocket. Spectators and their vehicles are nearly crushed. During the months he spends recuperating, public interest in his project wanes, and when he recovers sufficiently to start anew, he is able to do so in relative privacy with the support of his wife Audrey, his son Shepard, and daughters Stanley and Sunshine. An inheritance left by his father-in-law Hal allows him to settle all his debts and finance reconstruction of his rocket which he succeeds in launching. The rocket rises out of the barn. After orbiting Earth nine times and suffering a brief period of a communication blackout, he returns safely and is given a hero's welcome home through the credits.

Production

In How to Build a Rocket: The Making of The Astronaut Farmer, a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film, screenwriters Michael and Mark Polish reveal they used their father as a role model for the character of Charles Farmer.

The space suit

Space suit

A space suit is a garment worn to keep an astronaut alive in the harsh environment of outer space. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, and are necessary for extra-vehicular activity , work done outside spacecraft...

worn by Farmer is the same Mercury-era Navy Mark V

Navy Mark V

The Navy Mark IV high-altitude pressure suit was a full-body pressure suit originally developed by the B.F. Goodrich Company and the U.S. Navy for wear in high-altitude fighter aircraft operations...

pressure suit worn by all Mercury Seven

Mercury Seven

Mercury Seven was the group of seven Mercury astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1...

astronauts prior to Mercury-Atlas 9

Mercury-Atlas 9

Mercury-Atlas 9 was the final manned space mission of the U.S. Mercury program, launched on May 15, 1963 from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft, named Faith 7, completed 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, piloted by astronaut Gordon Cooper, then...

. Additionally, the rocket featured in the film is a nearly-scale replica of the Mercury-Atlas that launched America's first astronauts into orbit

Orbital spaceflight

An orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which a spacecraft is placed on a trajectory where it could remain in space for at least one orbit. To do this around the Earth, it must be on a free trajectory which has an altitude at perigee above...

.

The film's soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

includes "Rocket Man" by Elton John

Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

, "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)

Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)

"Luckenbach, Texas " is a popular song sung by Waylon Jennings released in April 1977, at the height of outlaw country on the hit album Ol' Waylon...

" by Waylon Jennings

Waylon Jennings

Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...

, "(Hey Baby) Que Paso" by Texas Tornados

Texas Tornados

Texas Tornados is a Tejano band. Its music is a fusion of rock, country and various Mexican styles.-History:The initial combination of musicians of the Texas Tornados happened almost by chance at a concert performance of a mutual acquaintance...

, "John Saw That Number" by Neko Case

Neko Case

Neko Case is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her solo career and her contributions as a member of the Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers....

, "Stop the World (And Let Me Off)" by Dwight Yoakam

Dwight Yoakam

Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music...

, "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" by Freddy Fender

Freddy Fender

Freddy Fender , born Baldemar Garza Huerta in San Benito, Texas, United States, was a Mexican-American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados...

, "List of Reasons" by Dale Watson

Dale Watson

Dale L. Watson is the former Assistant Director for the Counterterrorism Division of the FBI, as such he headed the FBI investigation into the September 11, 2001 attacks and the 2001 anthrax attacks.-Education:...

, "I Made a Lover's Prayer" by Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...

.

The film premiered at the 2006 Mill Valley Film Festival

Mill Valley Film Festival

The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute. Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a non-competitive environment for exhibiting independent and world cinema.Founded in 1978 by MVFF...

. Its February 23, 2007 theatrical release in the United States was three days after the 45th anniversary of the country's first orbital mission, Friendship 7, piloted by John Glenn

John Glenn

John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...

Cast

Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...

..... Charles Farmer
Virginia Madsen
Virginia Madsen
Virginia Madsen is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience...

..... Audrey "Audie" Farmer
Max Thieriot
Max Thieriot
Maximillion Drake "Max" Thieriot is an American actor. During the 2000s, he appeared in several Hollywood films, including My Soul to Take, Catch That Kid, The Pacifier, Nancy Drew, Jumper, and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.-Career:Thieriot was signed to talent manager Don Gibble after taking...

..... Shepard Farmer
Jasper Polish ..... Stanley Farmer
Logan Polish ..... Sunshine Farmer
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...

..... Colonel Doug Masterson (uncredited)
Bruce Dern
Bruce Dern
Bruce MacLeish Dern is an American film actor. He also appeared as a guest star in numerous television shows. He frequently takes roles as a character actor, often playing unstable and villainous characters...

..... Hal
Mark Polish ..... FBI Agent Mathis
Jon Gries
Jon Gries
Jonathan Francis "Jon" Gries is an American actor, writer and director. He is also credited under the names Jon Francis and Jonathan Gries. He is known for his role in Napoleon Dynamite as Uncle Rico, and more recently as recurring character Roger Linus on Lost...

..... FBI Agent Killbourne
Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...

..... Kevin Munchak
Sal Lopez ..... Pepe Garcia
J. K. Simmons
J. K. Simmons
Jonathan Kimble "J. K." Simmons is an American actor. He is best known for his roles on television as Dr. Emil Skoda in NBC's Law & Order , Assistant Police Chief Will Pope in TNT's The Closer, neo-Nazi Vernon Schillinger in the HBO prison drama Oz, on film as J...

..... Jacobson
Kiersten Warren
Kiersten Warren
Kiersten Nicolla Dale Warren is an American actress, best known for her role as Alex Tabor on Saved by the Bell: The College Years and as Nora Huntington on season 3 of Desperate Housewives.-Life and career:...

..... Phyllis
Rick Overton
Rick Overton
Richard "Rick" Overton is an American screenwriter, actor and comedian. His writing credits include Dennis Miller Live, and his acting credits include Willow and The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne.-Life and career:...

..... Arnold "Arnie" Millard
Richard Edson
Richard Edson
Richard Edson is an American actor and musician.-Biography:Edson was born in New Rochelle, New York. He has one brother, Steven, who resides in the Boston area, and two sisters: Andrea, who resides in Newton, Massachusetts and Jennifer, who resides in New York City. His father Arnold was one of...

..... Chopper Miller
Elise Eberle ..... Madison Roberts
Julie White
Julie White
Julie White is an American actress. She is known for her role in Grace Under Fire and for her role as Judy Witwicky in the Transformers film series.-Personal life:...

..... Beth Goode
Graham Beckel
Graham Beckel
Graham S. Beckel is an American character actor. He is known for his prolific guest appearances on television but has had prominent roles in several major films as well. Most recently he played Jack Fisk on Battlestar Galactica and Hal Sanders on Heroes...

..... Frank
Marshall Bell
Marshall Bell
Archibald Marshall Bell is an American actor. He has appeared in many character roles in movies and television. His best-known movies are probably A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge , Stand by Me , Twins and Total Recall .-Early life:He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he lived until...

..... Judge Miller
Kathleen Arc ..... Mrs. Harder

Critical reception

The movie was a financial flop and a moderate critical success. It maintains a 58% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Negative reviews concentrate on the ridiculous plot and the total reliance on "a decidedly American formula of can-do crazy" while positive reviews highlight the same elements as the good things about the movie.

A.O. Scott of the New York Times called the film "a disarmingly sincere follow-your-dreams fable" and added, "The tone of the film . . . is wide-eyed and unapologetically sentimental . . . With another actor in the title role . . . the mawkishness would be unbearable, but Mr. Thornton can be relied upon for understated dignity accompanied by an intriguing undertone of serious craziness . . . The Polish brothers, in earlier films like Twin Falls Idaho

Twin Falls Idaho (film)

Twin Falls Idaho is a 1999 independent film directed by Michael Polish, who co-wrote and co-stars in the film with his identical twin brother, Mark Polish.-Plot:...

and Northfork

Northfork

Northfork is a 2003 film directed by Michael Polish and written by Michael and Mark Polish. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2003 and later received a limited release in the United States on July 11, 2003. The film stars James Woods, Nick Nolte, Daryl Hannah, Anthony...

, have always placed wonderment above storytelling, and the availability of big stars and a reasonable special-effects budget has not entirely blunted their taste for odd, resonant images. The opening shots, of Farmer on horseback in his space suit, hint at a strangeness that the rest of the movie never quite lives up to, but it does have a visual freshness that makes the bromides and cliché

Cliché

A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...

s palatable."

Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

observed, "There's something old-fashioned about The Astronaut Farmer that's so conventional it feels unconventional. It follows the paradigm of inspirational movies so perfectly that even the smallest deviation seems rebellious. The movie's orthodoxy is precisely what allows us to take such pleasure in its irregularities . . . With this movie, the [Polish] brothers have been given a giant coloring book. While both write and produce, Mark directs and Michael acts . . . and for the most part, they attempt to stay within the lines. But it's in the few moments when they go outside those lines that the movie momentarily soars."

Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

called the film " exemplary family-friendly entertainment" and added, "[I]n less artistic hands, [it] could easily spin into cliche. Michael and Mark Polish . . . avoid triteness by sheer force of imagination. The small Texas town where Charles Farmer . . . handcrafts a rocket in his barn one valve at a time is presented as both familiar and otherworldly, part Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell

Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...

, part Twilight Zone

Twilight zone

-Television series and spinoffs:*The Twilight Zone, the anthology television series and its franchise:**The Twilight Zone , the 1959–1964 original television series***Twilight Zone: The Movie, a 1983 film based on the original series...

. . . The brothers are following a path set by David Lynch

David Lynch

David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...

, the king of weird, who ventured into wholesome territory with The Straight Story

The Straight Story

The Straight Story is a 1999 film directed by David Lynch. The film was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and co-worker. She co-wrote the script with John E. Roach....

and came up with something profound in its simplicity . . . The Polishes set up a classic David

David

David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

and Goliath situation, leaving no question of whom the audience will root for. There are sufficient surprises along the way, so the ending is far from predictable. The Astronaut Farmers goofy quality makes it totally endearing. It's also super entertaining."

Steve Dollar of the New York Sun

New York Sun

The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...

said, "Even for a comedy with dramatic drive, The Astronaut Farmer demands that the audience suspend its disbelief on multiple fronts . . . What is believable, however, is the passion of the Billy Bob. He genuinely makes all the tearjerker, hug-a-munchkin family stuff resonate. Maybe it takes an actress as sensual and earthy as Ms. Madsen to match Mr. Thornton in emotional honesty, but their grown-up dynamic is what keeps the movie from drifting out of orbit."

DVD release

Warner Home Video

Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...

released the film on DVD on July 10, 2007. The disc offers the option of watching the film in either anamorphic widescreen

Anamorphic widescreen

Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...

or fullscreen

Pan and scan

Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...

formats. It has an English audio track and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. Bonus features include How to Build a Rocket: The Making of The Astronaut Farmer, a blooper and outakes reel, and an interview with former astronaut David Scott

David Scott

David Randolph Scott is an American engineer, test pilot, retired U.S. Air Force officer, and former NASA astronaut and engineer, who was one of the third group of astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963...

External links