Self-help writer Robert Collier wisely observed: "One-pointedness is the ability to exclude from your mind all thoughts but the one you want to be possessed by. It is the power to concentrate on your dream until it has become more than a dream." Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) has that kind of one-pointedness. A rancher in Story, Texas, he dreams of orbiting the Earth in a rocket. As a boy he was inspired by the 1960s' space flights and Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon. He joined the Air Force as a pilot and then was chosen to be a part of NASA's astronaut training program. But when his father died unexpectedly, he was forced to make the most difficult decision of his life: to leave the program in order to save the family farm and pay off a staggering debt. Lesser men would have given up on the dream to orbit the earth but Farmer was determined to make it happen on his own terms and in his own time frame.
Over the years, with the help of his teenage son Shepherd (Max Thieriot), Farmer has built his own rocket in a barn and spent all his time and most of his money planning for the day when he can launch into outer space. The boy is a budding engineer, and his father has complete confidence in his ability to serve as "Mission Control." His wife Audie (Virginia Madsen) is a booster for her husband's dream although she must endure the doubts of the customers at the local restaurant where she works as a waitress. Why does she put up with this? Because she sees how the dream has unified the family: their daughters (Jasper and Logan Polish) are pleased when Farmer shows up at school on career day dressed in his spacesuit to talk about being an astronaut. Although the kids are thrilled with his performance, the teacher clearly doesn't think he's serious; she praises him for having the courage to play dress-up in front of the children. Another supporter is Audie's father, Hal (Bruce Dern), who appreciates that Farmer is modeling for his children a love of adventure, risk, and the courage to follow one's dreams.
The Astronaut Farmer is directed by Michael Polish and written by him and his brother Mark. Farmer's single-mindedness makes him into a larger-then-life character. His passion — what we call zeal in our alphabet of spiritual practices — is what animates him and also causes such a variety of reactions by others who come into contact with him. He faces some formidable obstacles: the possibility of foreclosure on his ranch by the bank, personal bankruptcy, needing to obtain 10,000 pounds of high-grade fuel, and the arrival of the FBI, CIA, FAA, and the U.S. military who put him under surveillance and order him to cease and desist in his rocket project. The government can't have him setting a precedent of an amateur going into space, and his project is also seen as a security threat. It seems that everything is conspiring against this determined "space cowboy," even though the national media attention has drawn attention to his cause.
The great African-American preacher, theologian, teacher, and writer Howard Thurman once stated: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Far too many people have not risked all for their dream and the result is a vexing feeling of not having lived at all. The Astronaut Farmer shows us the miraculous and unbelievable things that can happen when people live with passion and zeal.
Special DVD features include Bloopers and Outtakes, and the Featurettes, "How to Build a Rocket: The Making of The Astronaut Farmer" and "A Conversation with NASA Astronaut David Scott".
