Steven Sanders

The book has the time to completely develop the characters, unlike the movie, which pretty much rushed the story forward. The tension between Homer's mother and father and what each hoped for Homer's future. The combative relationship between Homer and his older brother,Jim , their competition for the same girl and their dreams of how to escape Coalwood. The movie took a lot of poetic license with what is really a intimate portrait of life in a small,dying company town in the mountains of West Virginia. A town, in the late 1950's, with very few options except working in the coal mine. A hardscrabble, tight knit town that's clinging to a way of life that is rapidly changing. A town doomed to be left behind in space age. I understand that Hollywood often feels that need to "sweeten the story" for dramatic reasons but real life in, this case, is much more interesting. In the movie there's only a hint of any character's back story but never really fully fleshed out. I highly recommend the book,"Rocket Boys,a Memoir", Homer Hickam Jr. For me the movie stands alone as just another slice of life saga, of rural America slowly embracing change. An interesting movie but it could have been so much more. The acting was very good but the outcome of the characters was always predictable and never in doubt. Steve