The Astronaut Farmer

A strange thing happens on “The Astronaut Farmer’s” mad dash for mediocrity: reality comes crashing into his happy story of make-believe and shakes things up.

A fantasy about a dreamer who refuses to concede his quest to fly one day into space – going so far as to build a towering rocket ship in his barn – the new film from the Polish brothers (the same pair who brought us “Twin Falls Idaho” and “Northfork”) is a fairy-tale for the terrorism age. Surprisingly, the bad guys aren’t cynics who mock Charles Farmer’s (Billy Bob Thornton) flights of fancy, or the bankers who threaten to foreclose on his home – a la “Field of Dreams.” Heck, the bad guys aren’t even the Soviets – the “Reds” who, in one way or another, stir up jingoistic notions of patriotism in most tales of space travel.

No, here the bad guys, the ones putting a knife to the American dream and this little man, are those who run the Department of Homeland Security; the enemy is the American government.

Called in when Farmer tries to purchase rocket fuel, worried that one of America’s own is devising a weapon of mass destruction, the FBI is asked to intervene by NASA and the FAA, who both have a vested, multi-billion dollar interest in ensuring that only “professionals” go into space.

In hindsight, the film’s overtly sappy, pristine opening is little more than a setup for the horrors to come, and the rushed, feel-good ending is difficult to stomach. But in between, the Polish brothers prove to be two of only a few directors to create a mainstream work that stirs up the pot of national politics – challenging the concept of a black-and-white war on terror.

Never is this point made more clearly than during an official governmental hearing, in which Farmer lodges a protest in hopes of attaining a permit to lift off into outer space. One after another, agency officials challenge him – one telling Farmer that it’s just too dangerous a dream, another asking how the American government can be assured that he isn’t constructing a weapon of mass destruction.

And suddenly, the government seems less like an entity designed to protect us than a body existing with the sole purpose of dictating what we can and can’t do, and how we can or can’t do it. We see echoes of today’s culture of political correctness, and when Farmer answers the official that they can rest assured there is no WMD on this rocket because they actually managed to find it – unlike Iraq – we’re reminded of how quickly our leaders can whip up an air of hysteria and suspicion, without an ounce of evidence to support it all.

Of course, none of this would resonate if we were not convinced by Billy Bob Thornton to lend our sympathies to this farmer, as he plays Farmer less as an eccentric than as a hard-working, family-loving, good-natured dreamer. He is really an everyman who commits himself to his rocket as so many other guys commit themselves to fixing a car, remodeling a house or exercising. He is the all-American family man, and when he is discouraged by the authorities or pulled in for questioning, he presents his case as simply, and humbly, as any average Joe would.

So no, it’s hardly subversive, but it is a powerful, PG-rated punch in the gut of America’s heartland. The Polish brothers have made a hero out of a “terrorist,” and stepped across that crucial line where even escapist entertainment cannot escape the ways of the world.

Once upon a time we all dreamt of being astronauts; if we are all going to allow this to be the age of terror, perhaps we’ll have to give up on that dream.