Breaking Away (1979)

“They’re gonna keep callin’ us “cutters.” To them, it’s just a dirty word. To me, it’s just somethin’ else I never got a chance to be.” – Mike

Number of Times Seen – 1  (10 Mar 2014)

Brief Synopsis – A group of 4 teenagers reach a turning point in their lives and want to try and find their places in life

My Take on it – This movie views an interesting group of suburban middle -American boys who just graduated high school and must try and decide what to do with their lives.  All 4 of them are very close friends, but each have their own goals for their futures and want to spend their time before starting their “real” lives doing meaningful things.

I was surprised to see that this movie was nominated for Best Picture in 1979 and that it even won the Golden Gloibe for best Comedy/musical feature.  (Eventhough, I didn’t find this to be at all musical or comical.)

The 4 teens are played by 4 future star actors (Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley and Denis Christopher) and it’s not surprising that they all do well here.

The story has an inspirational twist to it that deals with the boys proving their worth in a local bicycle race.

The characters are well developed and we care about them and not many movie are made like this one was.  The interactions between the characters seem very real and the fact that this movie was able to win an Oscar for it’s writing proves that it is written extremely well.

Bottom Line – Inspirational character study of heartland youths seeking to find their futures. Recommended!

Rating – Globe Worthy

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