TALE OF MINER'S SON RISES ABOVE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

``October Sky'' tells the more or less true story of Homer Hickam, a West Virginia coal miner's son whose youthful fascination with rocket science eventually led to a career with NASA.

Some Hollywood rocket scientists - director Joe Johnston (``Jumanji''), producer Charles Gordon (``Waterworld,'' ``Field of Dreams'') and screenwriter Lewis Colick (``Ghosts of Mississippi'') - have apparently worked over Hickam's memoir ``Rocket Boys'' to a commercial fare-thee-well. The thing plays like a ``Rocky'' movie for physics nerds, with a male weepie subplot of father-son friction thrown in for good measure.

Cliched as the film may be, though, there are far worse things than promoting learning in a beat-the-odds, rah-rah manner - and it must be noted that ``October Sky'' handles the material in a much more subdued, naturalistic way than the slicker, superficial ``Dead Poets Society'' did. We're also fortunate that the skeptical, hard-bitten dad is played by Chris Cooper, whose convincing, sympathetic presence has grounded hokum of all stripes (``Lone Star,'' ``The Horse Whisperer,'' ``A Time to Kill'') in honest behavior.

Young Homer, played earnestly by Jake Gyllenhaal, is, like many Americans, alarmed and inspired when the Soviet Union launches the first Sputnik satellite in 1957. Too puny to earn the football scholarship his older brother (Scott Miles) is headed for, Jake is expected to go straight to the mines once he graduates high school.

But now his head's in the heavens, not down in the hole. Risking social ostracism by befriending the school geek Quentin (Chris Owen of ``She's All That'' and TV's ``7th Heaven''), Homer and his pals Roy Lee (William Lee Scott) and O'Dell (Chad Lindberg), set to studying jet propulsion and experimenting with increasingly powerful - and unpredictable - homemade rocket launches.

Such activity is encouraged by Miss Riley (Laura Dern), one of those super-supportive movie teachers who can't be long for this world. It's pretty much dismissed as pie-in-the-sky nonsense by everybody else, most particularly Homer's mine foreman father John (Cooper). Tensions mount when a predictable cave-in, then a strike, threatens John's livelihood. But gosh darn it, that national science fair is coming up, and somebody's got to win it and get their hand shook by Werner Von Braun.

For the most part, the filmmakers treat the town's doubters with respect; in the late '50s, outer space was indeed a fantasy realm, and why should a culture built on the ultimate down-to-earth business think otherwise? If Homer or one of his buddies gets uppity about their self-advancement agenda, a working man soon comes along to remind them that hard labor is noble, too.

This, like a dozen other crowd-massaging touches (Homer's spunky, encouraging mom, the girl who likes him for his brain more than his rising local celebrity, etc.), comes off as manufactured as the movie's overall, triumphal inevitability. But ``October Sky's'' love of brainwork is genuine enough, and that's really all the movie needs to rise above its mundane fundamentals.

THE FACTS

The film:``October Sky'' (PG; language, children in jeopardy).

The stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, William Lee Scott, Chris Owen, Chad Lindberg, Natalie Canerday.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Joe Johnston. Written by Lewis Colick, based on Homer Hickam Jr.'s book ``Rocket Boys.'' Produced by Charles Gordon and Larry Franco. Released by Universal Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 48 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three stars.

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Photo

Photo: Homer Hickham (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a coal miner's son who aspires to be a rocket engineer and Laura Dern is his supportive teacher in ``October Sky.''