A Great Sports Movie
Most people have seen the majority of the great sports movies like “Rocky,” “Bull Durham,” “Hoosiers,” “Caddyshack,” ‘Field of Dreams,” “Slap Shot,” etc. There are others (“Rudy,” “Raging Bull,” “Remember the Titans”) that show up on a lot of lists of great sports movies, and most have seen those also. But the way movies are unveiled these days, most people get caught up with seeing the movies of the present and simply ignore most of those that came earlier (other than the obvious, older, more famous ones), unless they happen to accidentally show up on their TV screen.
Some of these “forgotten movies from the past” were really good. But, unless you are aware of them, they are kind of lost in a time capsule. I’d like to talk about one of these movies that the majority of people today probably have NOT seen, and yet, it usually shows up on some of these “really good sports movies” lists. If you haven’t seen this movie, I’d like to recommend that you give it a shot.
“Breaking Away”
“Breaking Away” was a relatively low budgeted movie that came out of relative obscurity in 1979, and all it did was get nominated for Best Picture in a year that also featured “Apocalypse Now” and “Kramer vs. Kramer.” Breaking Away is a term in bicycle racing about riders who “break away” from the pack, so the movie’s world was the world of amateur bike racing.
But this movie was so much more than a bike racing movie. If Rocky was the movie about the world of the underdog Philadelphia boxer who got a shot at the heavyweight title, this was a movie about the world of four guys from Indiana from the poor side of town, (who were best buddies who hung out together.) It followed them as they try to find themselves after high school, and have a true coming of age moment that is a highlight of their lives. And what made it interesting as a viewer was that each of the four best buddies was so identifiable as someone we have all seen before in real life.
One was the former quarterback of the football team who doesn’t know where to go in his life after the best part of his life is already over. One was the short guy in school that was always teased by everybody for being short, and again wondering what he will do with his life. One was the tall, lanky, awkward guy who could never do anything that could satisfy his parents. And the last one, Dave, the primary focus of the movie, was the guy who was the really good bicycle racer that admired Italian bicycling so much he went around pretending he was an Italian.
The four high school graduates were from the poor, working class, as all of their parents worked at a limestone quarry, so they had to go through their lives known as the lowly “Cutters.” The wealthier, college kids from Indiana University were always too good for the Cutters, who were the types to get jobs right after high school and to never go to college.
So, Dave spent most of his time practicing his bike riding, his father gave him grief about pretending to be Italian, for his avoidance of getting a job, and the four best friends had to deal with a world where they were always looked down upon and none of them was very likely to ever amount to anything.
Dave goes through the very human experience of admiring all things Italian, then losing his innocence because of Italians. Of falling in love with a college girl who thinks he’s Italian, to having his dreams of love be shattered because he’s not Italian. Of having problems relating to his father, to seeing something he did cause his father to have a heart attack, to ultimately gaining the respect of his father. Of thinking he’s not as good as anyone else, to maybe, just maybe, doing something to earn the respect of everyone else.
The story evolved into a movie where the underdog Cutters get invited to race in the Little 500 Bicycle Race at Indiana University, where they compete against all of the college students that act as if they are too good for them throughout the movie. And the climactic race in the Little 500 is every bit as thrilling and entertaining as any of the fight scenes in Rocky.
The scenes and dialogue were rich in wit and character. It was a movie, but it felt as genuine as if it were a classic from American Literature. It had the feeling of Americana. It felt as if Mark Twain could have written it. As stated before, the movie was nominated for Best Picture. It WON the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Barbara Barrie, who played Dave’s mother, also won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
The best I can say about “Breaking Away” is that it is a movie that will make you feel so good after viewing it that you will simply be glad you saw it. Rotten Tomatoes has given it a very high 94% approval rating. It is a movie that will take you to a world that you will not soon forget. It is a movie with an ending that take you through all kinds of human emotions, but most of all, it’s the type of movie that makes you really glad you went to that movie.
All I can say is that it still remains one of my three favorite movies of all time. If you haven’t seen it lately, see it again. If you’ve never seen it before, you really should, somehow, find a way to see it!!
