Breaking Away (1979)

I loved Breaking Away, a nominee for Best Picture of 1979, when I saw it in theaters with my family upon its original release. I hadn't seen it in probably 25 years, so when I sat down to watch it again this time, I was afraid that it wouldn't hold up. So many fond memories of one's childhood get dashed upon being revisited, don't they? However, Breaking Away is still just as enchanting and thrilling as I remember. It is one of those small gems of a movie that you can enjoy over and over again.

The film is the story of Dave Stoller (Dennis Christopher), a cyclist who has fallen in love with all things Italian thanks to their prowess at cycling. He speaks Italian around his parents, the delightful Barbara Barrie and Paul Dooley, and even shaves his legs the way the Italian riders do. When he isn't riding, Dave spends time with three of his friends from high school: Mike (Dennis Quaid), Moocher (Jackie Earle Haley), and Cyril (Daniel Stern). Each of his friends has his own post-school crisis. Mike, who dreamed of being a football star in college, has been injured and now has no prospects outside of menial work. Moocher's family, in an attempt to find work, has left him behind and moved to Chicago, and he wants to get married in spite of a lack of means of supporting himself and his new wife. Cyril, although intelligent, has never been encouraged by his father to see himself as having potential. They spend the summer together swimming in the remains of a quarry that was where many of their dads worked. It's a pretty idyllic environment.

All of this takes place in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. There is, naturally, tension between the allegedly wealthy kids who attend the university and the "cutters," the people who live in town. Even Dave and his friends are known as cutters although the quarry itself has been closed down for years. Still, the setting provides Dave with an opportunity to fall in love with a beautiful girl who, not realizing that Dave is not truly Italian, falls in love with the image of this romantic foreigner. His serenading of her is one of the most touching moments of the film.

As an aside, the girl's boyfriend is played by Hart Bochner, one of the most beautiful young men ever to appear on film. Years ago, I was at a screening of a collection of movie trailers that had been saved, and the audience was mostly gay men (and a few lesbians and token straight people). When a movie starring Bochner came on the screen and the first shot of him without a shirt appeared, there was an audible gasp of appreciation from the assembled masses. I can't imagine what that group of men would do with this film, which also features a young Dennis Quaid with a set of abdominal muscles anyone would want to have. Quaid has always been one of the hunkiest of movie actors, but he spends most of Breaking Away shirtless and/or in a pair of cutoff shorts. It's enough to take your breath away.

I suppose in some ways you could call this a sports movie. Certainly, the climax of the film occurs at the Little 500, a race that pits one team from town (Dave and his friends) against dozens of teams from the university. And the cycling sequences are pretty spectacular. When Dave finally gets the opportunity to ride alongside his idols, the Italians, you get to feel the exhilaration he feels, at least temporarily. However, this film is much more than a sports movie, and that's what makes it exceptional. It's about the ways that we interact with our families. It's about the bonds that develop between friends. It's about the ways that we divide ourselves and the ways that we are sometimes able to overcome those divisions. Breaking Away is a rich film, and it evokes for me the dreams that people in small towns like Bloomington have. Dave is one such dreamer, and it's a pleasure to spend a couple of hours with people like him.