| Breaking Away | | Cast : | Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid | | Director : | Peter Yates | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox Home Video | | Format : | Color, Widescreen, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | July 20, 1979 | | DVD Released Date : | March 11, 2003 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | Light-hearted 80's Sports Movie | Content
 | Just as the title of my review implies. This is truly just a light-hearted film that should only be taken with a grain of salt. If you love cycling, you should be tickled that a cycling movie has actually been made. Just sit back and enjoy. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 25, 2005 | | Summary | a classic! | Content
| When a friend of mine came home from indiana University in the late 70's and told me he'd been an extra in a movie filmed on campus...well, I just had to see it just to see the 1/2 second scene my friend is in. But something else happened----and I get that feeling everytime this movie is on TV. This simple, somewhat low budget film hits my top 10 classic films of all time. The characters are us---we can identify with them. And although as one person wrote, then ending is expected--it still gives you a great feeling when the "cutters" win. So--buy it if you haven't seen it. You'll watch it again. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 21, 2005 | | Summary | Bloomington for foreign viewers | Content
| A reviewer noted earlier that Breaking Away is a very American film, and was not sure how much of it would hit home with foreign viewers. Here's my opinion. While this is obviously a tale of small town America, I think it has a universal appeal. I watched it for the first time with a bunch of friends when I was an 8th grader in Puerto Rico, before I ever visited the United States. I had never heard of Bloomington, Indiana, or Indiana University, or the Little 500. I didn't even understand the language very well back then, so I was reading the Spanish subtitles. But this story is a crowd pleaser that anyone can understand. The universal themes of finding who you are, embracing your roots and succeeding against the odds are there. The characters are likable, regular people that anyone anywhere will find familiar. But most important, this film is simply wonderfully made. I still remember the loud cheers at the movie theater at the end of the race. I never forgot that movie.
Little did I know back then that many years latter I would attend Indiana University. I watched it again in Bloomington. Suddenly this movie felt like home. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 04, 2005 | | Summary | A touching story of small-town America. | Content
| This is a truly touching story about a young man from a working-class background growing up in a college town. Most of the townspeople (called "cutters" by the college students who look down upon them) work or worked in the nearby rock quarry, managing at most a modest middle-class status. This story is primarily about this friction between social classes, and one young man's successful ascent out of his own social class and into college. And it is about more than that. The method by which he succeeds inspires the whole town to be proud of their solid, working class roots, and affirms the fact that in America we need not be bound by our social class, and indeed with brains, ability, talent, and yes, guts, a person can achieve anything.
The protagonist is an amateur bicyclist, and the struggle is initially about his attempt to break into the ranks of amateur bicycling. This theme is woven into the social class divisions of the town, which are an obstacle to his dreams. In the end, (no spoiler here) he succeeds in a dramatic way. This film succeeds in being both significant and very funny.
A fine film that the whole family can enjoy together. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 27, 2005 | | Summary | Bittersweet | Content
| Breaking Away is one of the best movies of all time (really). This movie is so brilliant and so beautiful on so many different levels and dimensions. On the surface, the movie seems to be about cycling, but there is so much more. It definitely captures that crossroads period in your life after high school when the possibilities are endless, yet slightly frightening. Some of my favorite scenes are those between Dave and his father. In one scene, Dave comes home from a race in which his idols (the Italian team) have shattered his dreams and begun to crumble his childhood innocence. In tears, he tells his father: "Everyone cheats, I just didn't know". And his father, unsure how to respond, can only pat him on the shoulder and awkwardly tell him: "Well, now you know". In another later scene, Dave's father takes him through the IU campus and proudly shows him the results of his life's work, yet tries to convince Dave that his life can be better than his father's (as every parent wants for their child). Then of course, there is the relationship between the four high school friends who are beginning to realize that high school (unfortunately) can't last forever. The final race is a little cheesy and predictable, but by then it doesn't matter. If you can only watch movies where something gets blown up every fifteen minutes, then you probably won't enjoy this one. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and watch this one. You won't be disappointed. |
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