“October Sky,” August 17, 1999, video. Set in 1957 as Sputnik circles the globe, this well-received sleeper of a historical drama chronicles the real struggle of four young boys from a West Virginia mining town to improve themselves and their chances of escaping the mines by exploring their fascination with rocketry and building their own rockets. Their interests take them off to college, and one of them becomes a NASA rocket scientist working on the Apollo project. The film’s first half is quite good, and very tight The second half, however, is formulaic and undermined by a profoundly anti-labor bias, although it is clear in discussing the district’s poverty and the dangers of mining. The acting is good, especially the four young boys. One of the nicest touches is actually seeing the boys/men in photos at the end of the story Surprisingly, the lead in “Matewan” and “Lone Star” plays the hard but, fundamentally, “right” anti-labor father and mine supervisor in the film. I wonder what John Sayles thought. Laura Dern as the supportive teacher labors under the burden of an awful, melodramatic role as she dies, Camille-like. Yucky and poorly written in that bit.