Dave is a restless 19 year old resident of Bloomington, Indiana, who has a love of cycling and Italy, not necessarily in that order and not, by any means, mutually exclusive. He idolizes the Italian cycling team that will be coming to town to race and adopts a whole new persona in which he pretends to be Italian, much to the dismay of his father and amusement of his mother. His friends, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher, hang out with Dave, have an antagonistic relationship with the local college kids, and generally do nothing except swim in a lake at the base of a limestone quarry all day. Dave also falls for a college girl and convinces her he's an Italian exchange student, making it even harder for him to be seen with his friends when he's in character. Eventually, Dave becomes disillusioned with the Italians he so idolizes and his friends convince him to sign up for the Little 500, an actual bicycle race held in Indiana each year.
Of course, describing a movie like Breaking Away doesn't even come close to doing it justice. The movie isn't about the plot, it's not even so much about the characters; it's about the moments. One of the moments comes at the used car lot described above, when Dave gives a customer a refund. Another moment, perhaps the greatest in the movie, comes when Dave and his dad, Ray, finally have a heart to heart talk on a park bench on a cool summer night. Ray used to cut limestone in the quarry, the very rock that built the university he'd hope his son would go to. When talking about Dave's direction in life, Dave comments that he's a "cutter," a nickname he and his friends have adopted because they hang out in the quarry and have decided to not pursue higher education. Ray looks at him and says, "You're not a cutter. I'm a cutter." It's a simple moment but a powerful one. Ray is defined by what he does and what he did, not what he doesn't do. He's a cutter. His son is not and he's proud of that. His son, in his eyes, can be so much more.
Breaking Away was written by Steve Tesich who won an Oscar for his screenplay. It was a personal project for him, one in which he himself lived out much of the story. He was born in former Yugoslavia as Stojan Teić and moved with his family to Indiana when he was fourteen. He attended the University of Indiana and even took part in the Little 500 himself as one of the four members of the 1962 team that won the race. His friend did most of the cycling for the race and became the inspiration for Dave, along with Steve himself. Tesich loved cycling and also loved being the foreigner in a new land. He would take his immigrant background and graft it onto his friend's love of cycling to create Dave and his adoption of the foreigner in a strange land persona. Tesich would go on to write the screenplays for The World According to Garp, Eyewitness, Four Friends, and American Flyer before dying, tragically young, from a heart attack at the age of 53.
The director, Peter Yates, was not the first person one would think of to direct this American slice of life. Born in England and known primarily, before this, for his terrific police thriller, Bullitt, and the underwater adventure, The Deep, he directed Breaking Away with an absolute sense of joy and a keen eye towards Middle American life. In one scene, where Dave rides alongside an eighteen wheeler on the highway, Yates brings to bear his skills seen in the famous Bullitt chase scene but mellowed down for a gentler take on the thrill of the chase, or in this case, race. Yates would go on to work with Tesich two more times, on Eyewitness and Eleni.
The actors are uniformly excellent. As mentioned at the start of this piece, Paul Dooley is a wonder to behold and delivers one of the best "Dad" performances in all of cinema. Barbara Barrie, as his wife and Dave's mom, is superb and the rest of the cast, including Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, and Jackie Earle Haley, are all great in their portrayals as well. Breaking Away became a sleeper hit, starting small and playing longer and longer in more and more venues until the film itself was a hit, breaking away from the competition. Today it is regarded as one of the best films of the seventies and a true classic.
By Greg Ferrara
