I had the unique pleasure to recently view Race to Space at the 2001 Marco Island Film Festival. I mention this because this is an excellent movie that somehow has escape getting picked up for distribution.
Race to Space is loosely set against the early 60s NASA space effort as led by Wernher Von Braun who has been fictionalized in the movie as Von Hueber and played very well by James Woods. Von Hueber has a 9 year old son, Billy who is the main character and who is excellently played by Alex D. Linz. Billy deals with several themes which are successfully interwoven. 1) Discrimination due to Billy being the son of a well known former German Nazi rocket scientist, 2) Billy's relationship with his father, the no nonsense rocket scientist, as it evolves following the death of his mother 3) Billy's maturation and relationships as he becomes involved with the training of the chimpanzees for the space program. My only negative comment is that I found the seemingly mandatory Disneyesque villain theme somewhat hokey and predictable. This doesn't seem consistent with the high quality of the other well integrated parts of the film. Perhaps this was inserted to make the movie more kid friendly. I also have some concern that people will think this film is historically accurate when if fact it is a fictionalized depiction set against actual historical background. Despite the fact that the movie tends to seamlessly phase in and out of historical authenticity, the themes are so well done, it may be difficult for some to distinguish fact from fiction.
Overall, this is one of the best films you will ever find that is entertaining and enlightening for the whole family. I strongly recommend that you make the effort to do whatever it takes to see this movie and to demand to have this film widely distributed. I saw this movie with my wife and 9 year old son. We all agreed that this was an excellent movie, with my son using superlatives "totally awesome" and "excellent". Find this movie and see it!!! I give it 8.5/10
Race to Space is loosely set against the early 60s NASA space effort as led by Wernher Von Braun who has been fictionalized in the movie as Von Hueber and played very well by James Woods. Von Hueber has a 9 year old son, Billy who is the main character and who is excellently played by Alex D. Linz. Billy deals with several themes which are successfully interwoven. 1) Discrimination due to Billy being the son of a well known former German Nazi rocket scientist, 2) Billy's relationship with his father, the no nonsense rocket scientist, as it evolves following the death of his mother 3) Billy's maturation and relationships as he becomes involved with the training of the chimpanzees for the space program. My only negative comment is that I found the seemingly mandatory Disneyesque villain theme somewhat hokey and predictable. This doesn't seem consistent with the high quality of the other well integrated parts of the film. Perhaps this was inserted to make the movie more kid friendly. I also have some concern that people will think this film is historically accurate when if fact it is a fictionalized depiction set against actual historical background. Despite the fact that the movie tends to seamlessly phase in and out of historical authenticity, the themes are so well done, it may be difficult for some to distinguish fact from fiction.
Overall, this is one of the best films you will ever find that is entertaining and enlightening for the whole family. I strongly recommend that you make the effort to do whatever it takes to see this movie and to demand to have this film widely distributed. I saw this movie with my wife and 9 year old son. We all agreed that this was an excellent movie, with my son using superlatives "totally awesome" and "excellent". Find this movie and see it!!! I give it 8.5/10