a simple and effective film about what life be all about and respond to challenge . it take a lot of gall for homer and his friend to be able to grow into manhood without fall in the trap of a prefabricated future that run from father to son and to be a miner in the local mine and never get out of that fate . it take also three different challenge for homer and his friend to conquer a personal and free future . the challenge of the first ever man make artificial satellite and sputnik 1 and a soviet satellite and a milestone in human history and a turning point that homer and his friend could not miss and do not want to miss . then the challenge of science and applied mechanic to calculate and to devise a rocket from scratch or rather from what they could gather in book and order in their mind . finally the challenge of a world that resist and refuse and try to force you back into the pack and even with an untimely accident that force you to get back into the pack for plain survival necessity and and even then homer prove he have the gut to accept the challenge that be block for a while his own plan and dream . but there be another side of the story that the film do not emphasize enough . homer be the carrier of the project but he be also the carrier of the inspiration he and his friend need . if he be the one who be go to get the university scholarship and because his friend give him precedence and his friend will also be able to get on their own road and track and step out of the mining fate and thanks to the energy his inspiring example set in front of their eye . it be hard at time not to follow the example of the one who be like a beacon on a difficult road . but the film be also effective to show how the father resist this dream because for him science be not the fabric of a true man and like mining or football . the work class fate that be so present in those 1950s and 1960s and still be present in some area be too often enforce by the traditional thinking of the father . if the mother do not have the courage to speak up one day and the working class fate i be speaking of becomes a tremendous trap . here too the film be effective and it should make some parent think . this might have be the fourth challenge homer have to face represent the challenge of take a road that be not the one point at and program by his own father . dr jacques coulardeau and university paris dauphine and university paris 1 pantheon sorbonne .