Breaking Away (1979)

VERDICT:
9/10 Slacker Uprisings

A tragically forgotten and entirely timeless coming-of-ager.

Breaking Away is about a kid who graduates from High School and decides to take a year off to hang with his “bum” friends and pursue his one true passion in life: competitive cycling. But since his friends aren’t exactly the most upstanding citizens in the township and the kid’s father doesn’t give half a rat’s ass about anything having to do with Ities and bicycles, he’s forced to tread his own path and find out the hard way how to lead his life despite what others expect of him.

So, as mentioned earlier, I think I’m grabbing at sticks right now in regards to finding folks who actually know what the hell this movie even is. I’m thinking some of y’all are looking at those “CUTTERS” T-shirts on the poster and thinking, “Those there young’ins could afford to stop listening to so much of that ’emo’ music I keep hearing about, ” but that really has nothing to do with why this movie is nothing short of seminal for anyone who feels like they’re the biggest fish in the smallest pond. And for the record, they’re referring to granite cutters, so that should be the least of your worries anyway.

On the one hand, Breaking Away is a tried and true sports movie. It’s Rudy, it’s Rocky, only it’s with bikes instead of football, and while I’m thinking that most of us Americans wouldn’t lose a whole lot of sleep without getting the latest update on the Tour de France, you’d be surprised at how engrossing this sport becomes even if you haven’t so much as hopped on an elliptical machine in your time. I mean, you put an underdog in any kind of situation, how in the hell can’t you root for ’em like gangbusters? Face it: we’re suckers for ’em and there’s nothing we can do about it.

The protagonist of our story is Dave Stoller, played by the one-hit-wonder himself, Dennis Christopher. The reason he’s a one-hit-wonder in the first place is because he’s done absolute jack crap since this came out roughly 30 years ago, but all the same, he’s one memorable individual. For a good long while he’s got this Italian kick going where he talks like he’s right off the Pinta, shaves his legs like his idols on the Cinzano cycling team and refuses to call his parents anything other than “Mama” and “Papa”, but as annoying as it may seem in one sense, it’s entirely endearing in another. Even though there were times when I wished he would just stop singing opera music and try to hit on girls like a normal human being, Stoller as a whole adds a lot to what makes this movie so unique and fun in the first place and I really have no idea why he phased out so quickly in the wake of his initial fame.

But for all his quirks, the thing to love about Dave Stoller is that he’s not “normal”. He’s more on the weird side than anything else, but there’s a passion and flame to it that you can’t deny no matter how out there he may be. He’s a guy you stick by, someone who’s stamina makes you feel like a beached whale for all the right reasons, someone who makes you want to stand up and scream, “If Dave can do it, so can I!” and that’s something else.

And then there’s Dave’s niche of friends played by the now-great Jackie Earle Haley, Daniel Stern (who very much needs a comeback) and Dennis Quaid (who continues to kick ass whenever present) and this is one of those instances that should make us all wonder why it took so long for them to be household names in the first place. Granted, Daniel Stern isn’t much of a household name outside of “That ‘Wet Bandit’ guy from Home Alone,” but all these guys have talent to spare which continues to go untapped.

And bonus points to Paul Dooley (the ultimate ’80s dad) as Dave’s father who’s waking nightmare is providing refunds for customers at his used car dealership.

Look, Breaking Away isn’t just a great sports movie, it’s a movie about believing in yourself and not buying the bullshit when others tell you that you’re never going to amount to the person you know you’re gonna be. We’ve all gone through periods in our lives where he spend Summers being professional hanger-outers, but we also all have that spark within us that’s just waiting to get set ablaze like an effing inferno, and this is one of those stories that’ll keep it burning strong. Man, I grew up on this movie and as often as I’ve seen it over the years, it’s still breaks me down like an infant with each viewing and it still keeps me plugging along towards reaching all my goals that I know I can reach. The pacing might not be as razor sharp as one might expect these days, but it stands the test of time like no other and it’s about time it got its due.

Proud Cutter for life over here.