“The Italians are coming!”
On the heels of the Giro d’Italia, we’d like to remind our readers that one of the great sports movies in Hollywood history (The Number 8 Sports Movie of all time according to Sports Cinema 100 Movies) revolves around the story of a talented young Indiana cyclist’s escape into a world of Italian bicycling.
Next month marks the 30th anniversary of “Breaking Away” with Dennis Christopher starring as Dave Stoller, a recent high school grad who drives his parents (Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie) crazy with an insatiable immersion into the Italian culture from the language, accent and music to all that “I-tey food” as he develops his cycling skills.
Dave’s dream world is shattered when he eventually faces an Italian race team that comes to town and compete against him with less than sportsmanlike conduct.
But eventually he gets by with a little help from his friends (Dennis Quaid, Jackie Earle Haley and Daniel Stern) as they are victorious against the snobby local college boys in the town’s annual bike race.
Nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture, “Breaking Away” won for Best Screenplay (Steve Tesich).
“Breaking Away” has to be on everyone’s Top 10 list for sports movies. so well done.
You could see Dennis Quaid had the makings of a star back then.
A brilliant little story. Haley a “Bad News Bear” and Stern would do good things of course Quaid is having a brilliant career. dont think Christopher ever really topped himself after this.
This is a great example of how small stories often end up being the best ones on the silver screen.
what a great, great movie. I will have to go buy the DVD now.
Fantastic film!
Dennis Christopher was so well cast. He was very believable.
Just saw this the other night. Holds up really well.
Thought this movie was well cast all around. Paul Dooley was hilarious as Dennis’ father.
What I remember was dave’s parents were wacky so I was thinking no suprise about their son. fun film
I remember watching it as a kid and really loving that scene where he is racing alongside that big rig
I dont like cycling but enjoyed this film.
One of the all-time great sports movies. well-written, directed and performed.
Dennis Christopher had the performance of his career as Dave Stoller. What a fun film. His dad was hilarious.