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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | 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
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| | Product Details | | Actors: | Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen, Max Thieriot, Jasper Polish, Logan Polish | | Director: | Michael Polish | | Format: | Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC | | Language: | English, Spanish | | Subtitle: | English, Spanish, French | | Number of Discs: | 1 | | Studio: | Warner Home Video | | Run Time: | 104 minutes | | DVD Release Date: | July 10, 2007 | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 71 reviews |
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Astronaut Farmer: magic of the dreamer not rocket science.... Dec 01, 2008
So many panned this film and but I enjoyed it. Many of the negatives about it stemed from the fact that instead of looking at the piece as story about dreaming and loss innocence, too many writers got caught up in looking at technical stuff as we have been taken been over and captured in the hi-tech world of ipods, blackberries, hi-def, hi-tech innovation, hi-gadgetry and the god of science and hi-innovation. Dreaming somehow is lost and that is good because it is has no circuits and logic boards to examine therefore can dreaming be good for us?
Critics nitpicked and complain about technical mistakes in term of aspects of the rocket. Why was more not shown of them building the rocket? The fuel mixture was crazy. One person could never build such a device. To complicated for one. It would never fly and other technicalities on and on. However, their complaints are while perhaps somewhat legit are also irrelevant in the space of the story. It is not about space or rockets or fuel ratios anymore than Field of Dreams was tale of baseball. It is entertainment first and foremost and a metaphor for the dreamers among
us.
The Polish Brothers wanted to make a more Hollywood type piece but true to their sensibility would not give in to the Hollywood model and wanted to tell the story in their own way. This film would not have worked if the big Hollywood machine had been trucked in with high price gunslingers playing the parts. It is the Polish brother's material and thankfully they kept with their own ideals and Kudos' to them for sticking to their personal vision. Listen to the praise in the DVD from comments by Billy Bob Thornton and others that he gives the Polish Brothers so much credit for staying with their ideals.
This story does not resonate with many of who are have become cynics to anything not empirical thus and given up on dreaming. Dreams are dangerous. They are a threat to many who believe in big brother or the experts and government for directing telling them what can be done and what is right or wrong. As the film and its commentary notes, we have lost the magic of believing we can do anything we want if and believe it hard enough and put enough effort in to make it happen.
Yes, to enjoy the film your belief must be suspended. However, you do that in most films anyway so it is not a huge issue. The idea is building of a rocket is stretching things. So be it. Although note that in the real world at last 1 person has tried to follow the example of what Charles Farmer was doing in the picture.
It is family centered about people supporting each other and believing in something so much and supporting themselves standing alone when society has dictated what want to do in cant be done because experts have forbidden it. As the characters say we have many laws to protect from other laws. The film hints we are being driven by legislated common sense. Family values rooted in a world where the concept of family is broken down. As Ms. Madsen herself says in her comments, it is about family with heart and soul and being told in the right way. This does come across in the piece whether you believe the rocket could work or pigs fly.
There is electric chemistry between Madsen and Thornton. They light up the screen in the support for each other. Thornton was a great casting choice, Very much the guy next door you could like and Madsen is his pillar and counterpoint. (Spoiler alert coming) really letting her husband (Thornton know when she starts to see the rocket idea affecting the family core values and structure). The flying saucer scene shows Madsen's great strength as an actress going from two opposite ends of emotions and coming back in a to where she began in powerful believable piece of acting.
It is good storytelling all around. Polish Brothers show they have depth and want to take their turn to make a more glossy Hollywood type production on their own terms with their own edge and humor.
Appropriate that the rocket was called the Dreamer. Perhaps this might have been a title. The dream, the dreamer and loss of that dream magic with a few hard life lessons added in were all woven together This resonated with me through the film.
Was it perfect no? But as a creative dreamer, I connected with the message and the believable characters. I was not overly picked that science was not perfect.
tms
 This is one of the worst films ever made! Nov 16, 2008
The science of this film is completely flawed. From the rocket building, to the descent on land with nothing more than a parachute, surviving multiple orbits of the planet, breathing in space, remaining warm enough inside the cockpit, even down to the homemade space suit. NONE of this is even remotely plausible, and to further insult your intelligence, when the farmer lands he does so within a short drive back to his farm, all without any contact with his makeshift ground control. This film it is pure fiction. But even if you buy into the ultimate white man fantasy premise, the film is still horrible. Scene after scene plays out with predictable, sappy, emotionally charged energy, the acting is fair, but Billy Bob is completely unbelievable as the every day man farmer with his tooth veneers, drop dead stunning wife, and obvious plastic surgery. The script is a mess of schlock, one zinger "How about these flying saucers!" as the farmer's wife throws a plate across the room! As an audience member I felt manipulated by scene after scene desperately trying to get me to give a damn. Instead of crying I found myself laughing at the absurdity of the entire mess.
And for "family values", the message of this film, endanger your families financial well being, put you life on the line, spend hours away from them, just to live out your own unrealistic selfish dream. The farmer literally can barely feed his children and nearly loses all of his assets, including his farm and home, but he isn't going to give up for the sake of his pride. Not really a theme that I want to promote for children.
Even the farmer's house was a hollywood fantasy in that it was large, beautifully decorated, with wrap around porches. I grew up near farms and most farmers live very plainly as they work ALL DAY LONG! They don't have time to build rockets, or match Laura Ashley patterns with their drapes.
The only thing that makes this film worth anything, is the beautiful cinematography. Yes, the camera does capture the beauty of the American heartland, but THAT IS IT! The special effects are an insult to the art form.
Impractical and misleading movie Nov 02, 2008
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.
 One of Billy Bob Thornton's best films since Sling Blade!!! A top "flight" family film!!! Sep 06, 2008
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+
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Good, Old-Fashioned Family Picture, Not Entirely Engaging Though Aug 20, 2008
"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.
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