So I remember this movie that seemed like a kids movie but was a little weird and unexpected at times. It’s been years, so some of the things I say here may not actually be in the movie.

Sort of a high imagination coming of age story

The more sure stuff:

They’re a family during the Vietnam war in suburban American. I think the oldest son gets drafted, and at some point they find out he’s not coming back.

The movie seems to focus on the young son who is maybe 9-12 y/o and is known for is kinda long very curly hair. The family takes in a native American boy to live with them, not sure what happened that caused that situation. The two boys become friends.

So the boys go on adventures, they sneak into gardens, pick carrots and eat them up to a point, and then put them back in the ground so they look like they were never picked.

The curly haired kid shows the other kid a secret that ‘not even his mom knows about’ it’s a door on the side of his torso that open to a how lot of gears and machinery.

The native kid at one point captures a pigeon and offers it to ths family as a pet. The family misunderstands, and cooks the bird for dinner.

At some point curly hair cuts his hair, I think he feels uncomfortable because of the possibility of some ambiguity in his appearance.

Then the two boys build a ‘rocketship’, and the fly it at the end. Then it turns to what I imagine is NASA, and they are both working there together as adults.

Not So Sure Stuff

I think there is a scene where the curly haired kid walks into a room and thinks he sees his dead brother standing in his uniform and the brother does something an older brother would, like pat him on the shoulder, or crouch down to look him in the eye,  I can’t remember.

I think there is another scene where a neighbor man visits to tell the mom he just grew some cucumbers, and wanted to know if she could make pickles saying something about how she makes the best. Later she’s canning the pickles, and with everything on her mind, you can see the stress on her face, she’s most likely thinking about her son in the war, and the pressure that’s weighing down on her causes her to drop a large jar of pickles on the floor, and they crash and break.