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October Sky
(1999)
Album Cover Art
Composed and Produced by:

Orchestrated and Conducted by:
Ken Kugler
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
Sony Classical
(February 9th, 1999)
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
Regular U.S. release.
Awards
AWARDS
None.
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ALSO SEE





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   Availability | Viewer Ratings | Comments | Track Listings | Notes
Buy it... if you take solace in Mark Isham's softer, understated dramatic writing for smaller orchestras, this score achieving a sensitive country demeanor without any unnecessary dramatic extroversion.

Avoid it... if sparsely rendered, slowly enunciated themes cannot sustain the emotional punch you demand for a story of this interpersonal gravity and stargazing whimsy.
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EDITORIAL REVIEW
FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #2,268
WRITTEN 2/6/24
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Isham
Isham
October Sky: (Mark Isham) Celebrated for years in the Appalachian region for its recognition of the struggles of youth in coal country, the 1999 drama October Sky is the mostly true autobiographical tale of a young West Virginia man who in 1957 rejected his future in the coal mines to instead pursue a future in rocketry. The launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviets inspired him and a group of like-minded space dreamers to use whatever means available to launch their own amateur rockets. At the heart of the story, however, is the teenager's strained relationship with his father, a dedicated coal mine manager. After initially rejecting the boys' plight, both the families and the townspeople at large come to support the endeavor. The lead character eventually moves on to a career in engineering that landed him at NASA. While Joe Johnston's movie did change some of the events from the source book from which it was adapted, the wholesome father-son element survived and drove the narrative. Although the director had a fruitful working relationship with composer James Horner to that point in his career at the helm of feature films, he spent the next two decades rotating between major composers, starting with Mark Isham on October Sky. Johnston had extensively temped the picture to Isham's music and hired the composer because of that affinity for the music's style. Isham, like all composers, was accustomed to hearing (and often disregarding if necessary) the temp scores in a new project, but he admitted that his music worked rather well on this movie right from the beginning. He took a different tact with the final score, and his music had to contend with a significant amount of 1950's pop songs sprinkled throughout the movie. His score was comparatively very conservative, applying a small orchestra of strings, woodwinds, rare brass depth, and a few percussive accents to supply a hearty base for the characters. A solo violin is the centerpiece of the ensemble, lending a folksy, timeless country demeanor. This group performs very respectfully with the intent of avoiding any semblance of sappy Hollywood presence in the music. Isham clearly preferred understatement here, generating a rather sparse and restrained score that strives unsuccessfully to push the dramatic element when sometimes needed but is otherwise non-offensive in each of its parts.


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VIEWER RATINGS
91 TOTAL VOTES
Average: 3.41 Stars
***** 25 5 Stars
**** 19 4 Stars
*** 24 3 Stars
** 15 2 Stars
* 8 1 Stars
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Track Listings Icon
TRACK LISTINGS
Total Time: 52:28
• 1. Coalwood (2:02)
• 2. Sputnik! (1:08)
• 3. The Rocket Book (0:55)
• 4. Ain't That a Shame - performed by Fats Domino (2:26)
• 5. The Search for Auk 13 (3:28)
• 6. I Was Lucky to Know Him (2:34)
• 7. My Prayer - performed by The Platters (2:46)
• 8. That'll Be the Day - performed by Buddy Holly (2:18)
• 9. It is a Thing of Glory (1:32)
• 10. I Won't Shed a Tear (3:14)
• 11. The Black Phone (0:44)
• 12. The Dreams of Boys (2:35)
• 13. Searchin' - performed by The Coasters (2:40)
• 14. Yakety Yak - performed by The Coasters (1:51)
• 15. Cape Coalwood (0:53)
• 16. Miss Riley (2:23)
• 17. Splitting the Sky (1:21)
• 18. Speedo - performed by The Cadillacs (2:20)
• 19. I'll Be Gone Forever (0:56)
• 20. Range and Altitude (1:38)
• 21. Rocket Boys (3:52)
• 22. This One's Yours (1:46)
• 23. October Sky (4:30)
• 24. It's All In The Game - performed by Tommy Edwards (2:37)

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NOTES AND QUOTES
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from October Sky are Copyright © 1999, Sony Classical and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/6/24 (and not updated significantly since).
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