| Breaking Away | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Peter Yates |
| Produced by | Peter Yates |
| Written by | Steve Tesich |
| Starring | Dennis Christopher Dennis Quaid Daniel Stern Jackie Earle Haley |
| Cinematography | Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Editing by | Cynthia Scheider |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | July 13, 1979 |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $16,424,918 |
Breaking Away is a 1979 American film. A coming of age story, it follows a group of four male teenagers in Bloomington, Indiana, who have recently graduated from high school. It stars Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern (in his first film role), Jackie Earle Haley, Barbara Barrie and Paul Dooley. The film was written by Steve Tesich (an alumnus of Indiana University) and directed by Peter Yates. Tesich would go on to script another cycling-themed film, American Flyers, starring Kevin Costner.
The film won the 1979 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Tesich, and also received nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Barbara Barrie), Best Director, Best Original Score and Best Picture. The film also won the 1979 Golden Globe Award for Best Film (Comedy or Musical).
The film is ranked eighth on the List of America's 100 Most Inspiring Movies compiled by the American Film Institute (AFI) in 2006. In June 2008, AFI announced its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Breaking Away was acknowledged as the eighth best film in the sports genre.[1][2]
A short-lived television series based on the film, also titled Breaking Away, aired in 1980.
Contents |
Dave (Dennis Christopher), Mike (Dennis Quaid), Cyril (Daniel Stern) and Moocher (Jackie Earle Haley) are four working-class friends, living in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana. Now turning 19 years of age, they all graduated from high school the year before and are not sure what to do next with their lives. They spend much of their time together swimming in an old abandoned water-filled quarry, but also often clash with the more affluent Indiana University students in their hometown, who refer to them habitually as "cutters", a derogatory term stemming from the local Indiana Limestone industry and the stonecutters who worked the quarries.
Dave is obsessed with competitive bicycle racing. His down-to-earth father, Ray (Paul Dooley), a former stonecutter who now operates (sometimes unethically) his own used car business, is puzzled and exasperated by his son's love of Italian music and culture, which Dave associates with cycling. However, his mother Evelyn (Barbara Barrie) is more understanding.
Dave develops a crush on a university student named Katherine (Robyn Douglass) and masquerades as an Italian exchange student in order to romance her. One evening he serenades "Katerina" outside her sorority house, with Cyril providing guitar accompaniment. When her boyfriend Rob (Hart Bochner) finds out, he and some of his fraternity brothers beat up Cyril, mistaking him for Dave. Though Cyril wants no trouble, Mike insists on tracking down Rob and starting a brawl. The University president (then-University president Dr. John W. Ryan) reprimands the students for their arrogance toward the "cutters" and over their objections invites the latter to participate in the annual Indiana University Little 500 race.
When a professional Italian cycling team comes to town for a racing event, Dave is thrilled to be competing with them. However, the Italians become irked when Dave is able to keep up with and even speak to them in Italian during the race. One of them jams a bike pump in Dave's wheel, causing him to crash, which leaves him disillusioned and depressed.
Dave's friends persuade him to join them in forming the locals' cycling team for the Little 500. Dave's parents provide t-shirts with the name "Cutters" on them. Dave's father remarks how, when he was a young stonecutter, he was proud to help provide the material to construct the university, yet never felt comfortable being on campus. Dave is so much better than the other competitors, he rides without a break and builds up a large lead, while the other teams have to switch cyclists every few laps. However, he is injured and has to stop. After some hesitation, Moocher, Cyril and Mike take turns pedaling, but soon their lead evaporates. Finally, Dave has his feet taped to the bike pedals and starts making up lost ground; he overtakes Rob on the last lap and wins.
Dave's father is immensely proud of his son's accomplishment, so much so that he takes to riding a bicycle himself. Having finally decided on a direction in life, Dave later enrolls at the university himself, where he meets a pretty, newly arrived French student. Soon, he is extolling the superiority of French cyclists and culture, and the film ends with him greeting his father by saying, "Bon Jour, Papa," much to his father's astonishment.
Dooley and Christopher also played father and son in the 1978 film A Wedding and in the 2003 Law & Order: Criminal Intent television episode "Cherry Red".
Barrie, Haley and Ashton continued their roles in the prequel TV series.
The Little 500 bicycle race that forms the centerpiece of the plot is a real race held annually at Indiana University. A reenactment of the race was staged for the film in the "old" Memorial Stadium on the IU campus, which was demolished shortly after the filming of the movie.
The team is based on the 1962 Phi Kappa Psi Little 500 champions, which featured legendary rider and Italian enthusiast Dave Blase, who provided screenwriter and fellow Phi Kappa Psi team member Steve Tesich the inspiration for the main character in the movie.[3] Blase, together with team manager Bob Stohler, provided the name of this character: Dave Stohler.[4] In the 1962 race, Blase rode 139 out of 200 laps[3] and was the victory rider crossing the finish line, much like the main character in the film. Blase himself appears in the movie as the race announcer.
Many of the scenes in the movie were filmed on the Indiana University campus; glimpses of the Indiana Memorial Union are in the background of Dave's ride through campus. The pizza restaurant in the film ("PAGLIAI'S") is now Opie Taylors on the east side of North Walnut Street, across from the Monroe County Courthouse. Dave Stohler's house in the film is located at the corner of S. Lincoln St. and E. Dodds St. Other scenes were filmed outside the Delta Delta Delta sorority house (818 E. 3rd St) and along Jordan Street. Dave's "ecstasy ride" on the wooded road after first meeting Kathy (where his bike tire blew) was filmed on the "West Gate Road" in Indiana's Brown County State Park, 14 miles east of Bloomington on State Road 46. Two other scenes were filmed on W. 7th St.: one at Fairview Elementary, the other three blocks east near the intersection of W. 7th St. and N. Madison (the old railroad tracks have since been removed). A scene in which Dave runs a red light in front of his father was filmed at the southwest corner of the Monroe County Courthouse, at the intersection of College St. and W. 5th St (a few seconds before he runs it, the light is visible as he rides by the courthouse and sees Moocher and Nancy). The starting-line scene of the "Cinzano 100" bicycle race was at the intersection of Indiana State Roads 46 and 446 on the city's eastern edge. The old limestone quarry where Dave and his friends swim is on a private property south of Bloomington, at the end of East Empire Mill Road (off of old State Road 37), and is closed to visitors. It is now often called the "Roof Top" quarry, but was originally known as "The Long Hole" or "Sanders" quarry. The used car lot ("Campus Cars") was on S. Walnut St., and was a real used car lot for many years, but now has two small commercial buildings on the property; it is located at 1010 S. Walnut St. Next door is the local Honda motorcycle franchise seen in the background of the famous "Refund? REFUND!!" scene; it remains there today.
The 1992 Bollywood film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, starring Aamir Khan, is based on Breaking Away.
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||