SnoopyStyle Best friends Dave (Dennis Christopher), Mike (Dennis Quaid), Cyril (Daniel Stern) and Moocher (Jackie Earle Haley) are aimless working class recent high school graduates in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana. Dave's obsession with bicycling and Italian leaves his father confounded. The guys swim in the abandoned quarry. The college kids call them Cutters for the workers who cut the limestone to build the colleges. Mike is the former quarterback angry at the rich college kids since college is always beyond him. Dave falls for college girl Katherine while pretending to be an Italian student.Dennis Christopher is ostensibly the lead actor. His character is a little too naive. Dennis Quaid delivers the most powerful performance. His swimming race with the college kid at the quarry is a highlight. There are some funny moments centering mostly with Dave and his Italian obsession. This isn't the newer National Lampoon SNL type of humor. It's gentle and sweet. Paul Dooley is hilarious playing the father. There are great touching moments. This is a fine coming of age movie.

claytonchurch1 This is my favorite movie, and has been since about 1983, when I first saw it. Want a movie that's not schmaltzy, but has lots of good, real-life realities and lessons? This is for you. Want to see Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, and Dennis Christopher as young actors? This is for you. Want to see life in the late 1970s in a small, but not backward, town--what it was like for those who weren't doing drugs and getting drunk? This is for you. This movie chronicles four guys who've just graduated from Bloomington High (Bloomington, IN, in which the whole film was shot), who've made a pact not to work or do anything for a year. This movie is about growing up, about class divisions between the college-educated and the blue-collar (Bloomington is the home of Indiana University, which plays a big role in the film), and about coming to grips with who you are and what's important in life. This is a sweet, sweet (but not corny or feel-good) movie. Yet, it's not tragic. It's just a very good picture of slice of life as a kid (an old kid) in a safe town. Many lines from this movie summarize truths of life, and I've quoted the movie from the mid-'80s to today. Just watched it again (August 2014), and was once again refreshed. A gem of a movie, indeed.

Andreapworth Alright, it reminds me of just when I was out of college and EVERYONE was talking about this movie. I saw it and was completely hooked. How can you not like this movie with so many good and young and coming actors?It's a solid story and I met someone from Bloomington Indiana who was so completely wholesome and was amazed that I knew the school song (from this movie).Many sections of the movie are just hilarious. In Austin we didn't have equivalent to 'cutters', but for some reason, the University loved this movie, too.If you've never seen this classic, now's the time to try it out. OK, t takes me back in time, but it's still a hidden classic of the times.

pkarnold One of my favorite genres of movies is sports movies. Usually there is drama, comedy, and often surprising results. For me Breaking Away is certainly one of my top ten favorite sports movies, and quite possibly on my top five list.Breaking Away is a story about a teenage cyclist growing up in Bloomington, Indiana. Somehow he has become obsessed with the Italian cycling team. And whether his motivation is a unique way to meet young coeds at Indiana University or something else, he is an incredible cyclist.The fun part of this movie is his interaction with his mother Evelyn Stoller, who seems very understanding about his Italian cultural ways, and his father Ray Stoller, who doesn't understand why his son thinks he's Italian. Give credit to writer Steve Tesich whose script takes viewers on a humorous and believable adventure in this wonderful small-budget movie.Add in three friends who just graduated from high school, and this story is a fascinating jaunt with coming of age. Dennis Quaid plays a former high school quarterback, Jackie Earle Haley plays the short and defensive Moocher, and Daniel Stern plays Cyril, a student whose father likes to encourage him when he fails. Each of the supporting actors does a great job in helping to convey the story, but you can really see Daniel Stern's strength in comic acting in his first major movie role.The sports rivalry is actually established by the city kids called Cutters, competing for dates against the college male students. Eventually, the two rival groups compete against each other in a bike race called the Little 500. But honestly, the joy in this movie is the journey with all of the characters in the Peter Yates directed movie.As in life, there is humor and sadness, friends and family, rivals and conflict brought out on the big screen. This movie was surprisingly good the first time I saw it, and still enjoyable 30 years after its release. How good is Breaking Away? It won an Oscar in 1980 for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen with Steven Tesich doing a tremendous job in "wordsmithing" the script. The movie also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Barbara Barrie), and Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score (Patrick Williams).Perhaps my best recommendation for Breaking Away is that I consider it better than that other famous Indiana sports movie about High School basketball. That's probably a minority view, but if you haven't seen Breaking Away, you have missed a jewel of a movie.