I just watched the film, Breaking Away on DVD. I first watched it in the early-1980’s and, subsequently, on video release. Steve Tesich wrote this poignant yet inspiring Peter Yates film that won it an Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1979.
This film is about four childhood friends who grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. They belong to the working class known as cutters. Cutters is a derogatory reference to quarry-workers and their blue-collar families, and who are looked down on by the uppity students of nearby Indiana University. This is about the rite of passage for the four, who are to become adults. So, they spend their remaining days, avoiding responsibilities and swimming in their private quarry pool.
Dennis Quaid makes his appearance in this film as the former high-school football player, and his youthful and muscular build positions him well for his role as the quasi-leader of the team.
David Stohl (Dennis Christopher) believes strongly that the best riders are Italian, and he picks up the lingo, jargon and accent. As talented as the Italian riders are, he eventually realizes that things are not what they seem to be. After a bad bike fall, incurred by the nasty Italian riders who did not want him to overtake them, he wises up. It is interesting that some of the best realizations we experience have to occur after an accident or trauma. The team then has to test themselves after a rare invitation to race with the varsity teams in a track cycling race. Will they live up to the day as the underdogs?
Breaking Away is part Rocky, part Chariots of Fire – which were definitive films that also won the Oscar for best films. The similarities may be coincidental, yet who does not root for the underprivileged and unfortunate?
Do you really want to be an imitation of whom you idolize, or do you want to be the best ‘you can be’?
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