CONTENT REVIEW:

“The Astronaut Farmer” is a must see family drama that is so touching to watch and deserves an Academy Award for the issues of submission, love, endurance, family, selflessness, friendship, death, reconciliation, and perseverance it addresses among a family. It is not your typical Hollywood movie but like a movie based on many principles found in the Bible applied to real life. It is rated PG for brief language!

Violence:
There is one scene where a brick is thrown through a window!

Sex and Nudity:
None

Language:
There are 2-S words in the movie and one ‘H’ word.

Drugs & Alcohol:
None

Issues:
'The Astronaut Farmer' addresses issues such as submission, love, endurance, family, selflessness, friendship, death, reconciliation, and perseverance.

Overall Content Rating:
'The Astronaut Farmer' is a dream filled drama that receives a FIVE STAR rating and should be watched over and over again by every family that lives on the planet. This movie had me glued to the screen for the exceptional roles Billy Bob Thorton and Virginia Madsen played. The movie also has a lot of good morals in it!

PLOT SYNOPSIS:
'The Astronaut Farmer' is a touching family drama about a dad named Charles Farmer (played by Billy Bob Thorton) whose dream is to go into outer space. He is supported by his loving wife Audie Farmer (played by the lovely Virginia Madsen) and their three children as he builds a space shuttle in his farm. What follows will test his own resilience and his family’s resilience.

Spiritual Commentary – SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT I:

I loved the way they open the movie with a family dining at the table for breakfast. The mom is in the kitchen preparing the breakfast and the children are so happy to eat it while the dad comes and joins them. They even play games at the family table in other scenes. One of the character acknowledges how lucky Charles is to have a family that stays together and sits together to eat.

This reminded me of Proverbs 31 which can be applied as a criteria when looking for a wife.

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” (Proverbs 31:11-13, NIV)

“She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.” (Proverbs 31:15, NIV)

“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:26-30, NIV)

SPOILER ALERT II:
Audie is very submissive to her husband’s dreams and so are his children. The husband is very loving towards his wife.

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansingher by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” (Ephesians 5:21-33, NIV)

SPOILER ALERT III:
The children are very obedient towards their mommy and daddy in the movie.

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:1-4, NIV)

SPOILER ALERT IV:
When Audie finds out that Charles had a foreclosure on the house that he did not tell her and the kids, she gets really mad and they argue in front of the kids. Few minutes later the husband apologizes. The next day Audie takes the children with her and Charles thinks she is leaving so tells her please do not leave. We come to find out that she is actually going to church so she could forgive him and the children can learn to forgive. Even in problems there is no hint of wanting to get a divorce! Wow!

It is was exciting to see the role of the church in the movie and the movie addressing reconciliation in the context of the church and family.

“Jesus replied, "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,and the two will become one flesh.'So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (Mark 10:5b-9, NIV)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin^[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21, NIV)

SPOILER ALERT V:

The movie is filled with touching love moments between father-son, mother-son, father-daughter, husband-wife. In one scene no matter what the damage is she sticks by him.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NIV)

Questions to Ponder:

1. What is a dream you have and who supports you in your dream? If there is no support, how far are you willing to go to achieve your dream? Who can be your best dream builder?

2. What is the difference between the family in the movie and the families you know of? Choose one family and compare it with the family in the movie.

3. Why do you think their family is so close in the movie and how can that happen in real life?

4. What is forgiveness to you?

5. What is love to you?

6. What is something you have persevered and endured at? What was the outcome?

7. Why is their death in the world?

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ENTERTAINMENT

"'The Astronaut Farmer' Follows Family's Faithfulness!"

Ramesh C. Reddy Pittsburgh Standard

Ramesh C. Reddy
Pittsburgh Standard