General Cycling Discussion - What Is Your Favorite Cycling Movie?

I can't remember the Title of mine, but it was the one with the "Cutters". Included the American who spoke French because of his envy of the French racers.

Know which one I'm talking about?

I also love the Tricycle race in "Revenge of the Nerds". :D

Originally posted by Ba-Dg-Er
That would be Breaking Away.

Oh, yep, yep, yep... thats it. Thanks Ba-Dg-Er.

Well, since that's the only one I've ever seen, Breaking Away would have to be my favorite, too.

Originally posted by manderax
Included the American who spoke French because of his envy of the French racers.
:D

No, he spoke Italian , ate pasta and sang opera. Only when he came face to face with dirty Italian riding tricks did he become Francophile.

Lets not forget that real classic of 1950s cinema, The Bicycle Theives.

Originally posted by manderax
... Included the American who spoke French because of his envy of the French racers.


The story line was that he became an Italiophile after winning a Masi Gran Criterium in a local race. After becoming disillusioned with the Italians when one of the visiting team riders threw a Silca pump through his front spokes (ouch!), he became a Francophile when he an attractive exchange student from France. He even got his father, the stereotypical overweight used car dealer, to take up bicycling for exercise.

I really enjoyed the movie, although we have to forgive several technical errors, including going 55mph on the 42T inner chainring, while drafting the Cinzano truck.

Great music by Rossini, plus excerpts from Mendelssohn's Symphony #4 ("Italian"). I had alot of empathy for the protagonist, in the sense that I, too, was a horribly nonathletic kid who fortunately discovered and fell in love with bicycling.

Originally posted by MichaelW


No, he spoke Italian , ate pasta and sang opera. Only when he came face to face with dirty Italian riding tricks did he become Francophile.

Lets not forget that real classic of 1950s cinema, The Bicycle Theives.

Italian, thats right... thanks for the correction.

I didn't know there were any others besides Breaking Away.
But then, I'm not only a pack rat, I'm an unwordly pack rat. :(

Jon, what is an UNWORDLY pack rat? I thought you liked to read.

I haven't seen Breaking Away yet. My favorite cycling movie is still American Flyers . It was on last night on HBO. I saw the first half hour.

This topic shows up almost as much as Favorite Cycling Book.

Originally posted by A F Baker
Jon, what is an UNWORDLY pack rat? I thought you liked to read.

I'm not only an unwordly pack rate, I'mm an unworly pak rat with speling difficultys.

MY fave?

"Stars and Watercarriers" hands down!!!!

Ride Real
Pat

"20 Shades of Pink" 1976, with Eli Wallach

In a nut shell:
Married, middle aged dad fears growing old.
Buys a bike, gets obsessed.
Flirts with young women and racing.
Risks all, "...to win".

Only available in video now. Found in at
http://www.eonline.com/Facts/Movies/0,60,57879,00.html

My favorite bicycling movie is E.T. the Extraterrestrial.

what was the film on cycling starring Kevin Costner?

American Flyers!

Complete with the standard EEAMTER (early 80s American Movie Token Evil Russian).

Kevin Costner movie was American Flyers.
Last night saw Quicksilver, Kevin Bacon as disillusioned
stockbroker type who becomes bike messenger.
Best part is when he and Larry Fishburn race
track bikes thru San Fransisco, jumping intersections
and catching some hellacious air.....right.

Marty

More cycling film info at
http://www.stlbiking.com/Movies.html

Who can forget Alexandra Paul as the hitch-hiking girlfriend in American Fylers . She later went on to become a Baywatch Babe, and a serious Triathalete.

http://www.alexandra-paul.com/

Also, this foreign flick just came to US and is supposed to be good. It echoes another arthouse fave, "The Bicyle Thief," from Italy.
NY TIMES
FILM REVIEW; When You're in the Right, Obstinacy Can Be a Virtue

By A. O. SCOTT

The hero of ''Beijing Bicycle'' is Guei (Cui Lin), a young man from the countryside who finds a job in the
Chinese capital working as a bike messenger. On one especially stressful day, he arrives at a high-class
spa in search of a customer named Mr. Zhang, whom Guei interrupts in the midst of a massage. It turns
out that this is the wrong Mr. Zhang, and the mix-up culminates in a comical standoff with the
management, the summoning of uniformed security guards and a sarcastic piece of advice from a
receptionist: ''Try Zhang Yimou.''

additional excerpt of the review:

That Mr. Zhang is one of the best-known filmmakers of the Fifth Generation, whose movies, mostly set in
rural China in the recent and distant past, have been among the country's most prestigious cultural exports
since the mid-1980's. Wang Xiaoshuai, the director of ''Beijing Bicycle,'' is younger than Mr. Zhang,
part of a generation that has concerned itself with naturalistic, sometimes harsh depictions of Chinese
urban life. (Mr. Wang's previous film, an atmospheric Shanghai noir called ''So Close to Paradise,'' was
released in the United States last year.)


But the invocation of Zhang Yimou's name is more than a throwaway joke. Guei could be the male
counterpart to one of Mr. Zhang's peasant heroines, like the young teacher in ''Not One Less'' or the
indomitable women played, in at least a half-dozen movies, by Gong Li. He shares with them the virtue of
obstinacy. The other characters -- from his boss and co-workers at the Fei Da Express Delivery
Company to the gang of schoolboys who torment him -- pay repeated, grudging tribute to his incorrigible
stubbornness. When his bicycle is stolen, he sets off in search of it, an enterprise less like trying to find a
needle in a haystack than like looking for a particular bit of hay.

The bicycle, purchased from Fei Da for a portion of his weekly wages, is Guei's livelihood, and its
disappearance (just after the incident at the spa) may remind you of Vittorio De Sica's ''Bicycle Thief.''

Mr. Wang has updated De Sica's lyrical fable of urban poverty to the bustling, grasping streets of
contemporary Beijing, a city in perpetual and exhausting motion, where people are simultaneously trying
to scratch out a living and participate in the frenetic consumer economy. The bike eventually comes into
the possession of a petulant student named Jian (Li Bin), who values it as highly as Guei does, but for
different reasons. For Jian it is a way to impress girls and to fit in with his classmates. The money that his
father had promised would be spent on a new bike has instead gone to his stepsister's tuition, and the
actions Jian takes to get what he wants seem justified to him. Losing the bike, which its owner eventually
comes to claim, would mean, for Jian, a kind of social death, and he doesn't care that for Guei it might
mean something worse.

The conflict between the two young men, which reaches a climax of surprising brutality, develops slowly.
Mr. Wang has a graceful, almost classical sense of perspective. He positions his camera at a distance
from the action, using the mazelike alleyways of the city's poor districts to produce precise, painterly
configurations of light and shadow. ''Beijing Bicycle'' is at once somber and mysterious, comical and sad.
It shows just how lonely a crowded city can be.

''Beijing Bicycle'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for a few violent scenes.

There is a really good french film about a Messenger, "Cafe au Lait". Cycling is not the main theme but is some what prominant.

One of my Favorites is also "RAD" and 80's movie about BMX racing.

At all costs avoid a fairly recent movie called "The Messenger" it tauts itself as a modern "the Bicycle Theif". It was horrible.

"2 seconds" about a french DownHill racer is alright, rent if you see it but dont go out of your way to find it.

Despite previous threads expressing my dislike of cycling movies, I have had some time to think about it, and have decided that there is a possibility that perhaps they are not as bad as I had suggested. Onve I learn to ignore the obvious inaccuracies, I'm sure I'll grow to quite like them.

In anycase, I will now share with you my favorite cycling movie. It's actually not so much a cycling movie as it is a bike movie. By bike movie, I don't mean that it's about biking, but rather about a bike. More specifically, it's about a guy who takes off accross the country in search of his bike, and the wacky 'adventures' he has on the way. I suppose it's not really about a bike then, so much as it is about a guy that has a bike. Or rather a guy that used to have a bike. But I can't say that it's a movie about a guy. This isn't the "Favorite Guy Movie" thread. So I'm still going to say that it's a movie about a bike, and that will have to be good enough.

My favorite bike/looking for a bike/guy that has a bike/guy that had a bike/guy/bike movie is 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure.' I can't really explain it. All I can say is that Tim Burton plus Pee Wee Herman equals nightmares for the average six year old. But not in a horror movie kind of way; more of a 'what if Kubric make a kid's movie' sort of way.

If nothing else, that was one awsome bike.

Hmmm,

I haven't seen too many bike movies, but of those I have, I'd rate 'Tread' pretty highly, with Hans Ray and Greg Herbold...those guys are a couple of jokers!

Rich :beer:

Originally posted by LightBoy
...

In anycase, I will now share with you my favorite cycling movie. It's actually not so much a cycling movie as it is a bike movie. By bike movie, I don't mean that it's about biking, but rather about a bike. More specifically, it's about a guy who takes off accross the country in search of his bike, and the wacky 'adventures' he has on the way. I suppose it's not really about a bike then, so much as it is about a guy that has a bike. Or rather a guy that used to have a bike...

My favorite bike/looking for a bike/guy that has a bike/guy that had a bike/guy/bike movie is 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure.' I can't really explain it. All I can say is that Tim Burton plus Pee Wee Herman equals nightmares for the average six year old. But not in a horror movie kind of way; more of a 'what if Kubric make a kid's movie' sort of way.

If nothing else, that was one awsome bike.

ooooh! :D thanks for reminding me!

Pee Wee's Big Adventure is definitely my favourite movie with a bike in it. It's sort of a roundabout love story, boy has bike, boy loses bike, boy goes to great lengths to find bike...

waitaminnit. that sounds a bit like the plot of Beijing Bicycle. Which also sounds pretty good to me, by the way.

is a video a "movie" ?, chainspotting is a very good "bike" video, and it is British !, lots of cool trials riding ....... yeeeeaaaahhhh !:D

The thin list of movies referenced on this thread is evidence that more bicycling movies are sadly needed.

Let me mention the movie "10-Speed".

Perhaps no other movie will bring you back to the 1970's bicycle fever better than "10-Speed".

It is hokey to be sure; a good movie to watch with a bunch of friends and a bucket of beer. Everybody will be sceaming and hooting.

Warning; The first 10 minutes are the best. If you aren't entertained by then, rewind and put in another movie.

Ok ......but .....there are a bunch of video's out there, that are cycling specific !!, be it down hill, cross country, trials, whatever !!, what are some of the favorites ????

I also like the special effects that they used on the sprints. Amazing RPMs

What about "Quicksilver" with Kevin Bacon as a bike messenger.

Two: "Stars and Watercarriers," great 1973 Giro d'Italia documentary. Bonus--wonderful cool-jazz trumpet soundtrack by a good Chet Baker imitator. And, of course Hollywood's best--Pee Wee's Big Adventure!

OK, Rushmore isn't exactly a bike movie, but it would have a much different feel if Max wasn't rolling around on old bikes.

Plus, Rushmore is just the greatest movie ever.

andy

Originally posted by Feldman
Two: "Stars and Watercarriers," great 1973 Giro d'Italia documentary. Bonus--wonderful cool-jazz trumpet soundtrack by a good Chet Baker imitator. And, of course Hollywood's best--Pee Wee's Big Adventure!

We watched S and W at the shop today!!

Another good one is a Canadian movie "2 seconds". I love the old shop owner.

I'ts about a female downhill pro who gets kicked off her team (GT no less) and finds a job as a bike messenger. Pretty cool.

Tour de france 2001, and the 1992 tour de fFrance, its a collectors item

The best cycling movie is "BMX Bandits". OK so it's not the best, Breaking Away is. I watched that movie every time
it was on TV when I was a kid, it must have had an impact on me. BMX Bandits was an Australian movie featuring
Nicole Kidman in her first movie (I think) It's a pretty bad kids movie. It's worth it just to see Nicole acting
when she was a 14y.o nobody.

CHEERS.

Adventures For the Cure: The Doc (http://www.adventuresforthecuremovie.com/) is my favorite cycling movie.

one of my favorites is also "rad" and 80's movie about bmx racing...

+1 :)

Especially the opening and closing credits!! :thumb:

.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned "Les Triplettes de Bellville". It might be my quirky taste but I put this on my Top Ten list for all movies (and I HATE animation, otherwise). Go figure.
You can see clips on YouTube.

Ambush, a Finnish language film about WWII bike troops fighting on the Russian front.

Breaking Away.

PeeWee's Big Adventure really is a cyclists movie. It resonates with themes common to bicyclists.

I would add "20 Shades of Pink" to the list though it is more a chick flick than a cycling specific movie. It came out in the mid 1970's. I saw it probably 20 years ago.

It is about a guy who gets into racing bicycles because he thinks the young female bike racer he met is hot for him. turns out she isn't. Though heart broken at the end he still becomes one with the bike

( that is pretty much my story too LOL)

I have spend the last several evenings watching the biking
documentaries:
"Hell On Wheels",
"Overcoming, and
"Overcoming ( Bonus DVD).

The movies follow teams throughout the Tour De France.

Tonight it is going to be "A Sunday in Hell"...

Jerry

Adventures For the Cure: The Doc (http://www.adventuresforthecuremovie.com/) is my favorite cycling movie.

Have any movies come out in the 7 years this thread was dead?

Has to be a Sunday in Hell. Classic, classic, classic. A template for great documentaries. It says little, but shows you so much. It doesn;t patronise the viewer by assuming they have an attention span of a a two year old, and try to entertain them with reconstructions or flashy visuals. Like I said, a classic.

^ A Sunday in Hell

What's the setting? What year did it come out? I'd like to try and see if it's available this part of the globe. Thanks.

Have any movies come out in the 7 years this thread was dead?

Well not exactly a cycling movie, but a bike does play a big part... "The 40 year old Virgin."

and as a side mention, there is the one scene in "Men in Black" where the well lit tandem cruises by...

Not a cycling movie, but Lance Arnstrong had a cameo as himself in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, not on a cycle but as an inspiration to the hero (underdog).

Not complaining, but this is a seven-year-old thread brought back from the dead three days ago.
Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Any contenders released in the last seven years?

^ A Sunday in Hell

What's the setting? What year did it come out? I'd like to try and see if it's available this part of the globe. Thanks.

I believe that it covered the 1974 Paris-Roubaix race...( They used
toe-clips back then :eek: )

It can be found on the larger torrent sites...

Jerry

Jacque Tati's "Mon Oncle" (1958) has some great bicycle moments...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2014/1909609213_c85ad56589.jpg?v=0

Have any movies come out in the 7 years this thread was dead?

A british film came out in 2006 called "The Flying Scotsman." This is a true cycling film in every sense of the word - about the life of world title holder, Graeme Obree and his struggles against childhood bullies, depression, and the UCI.

Doesn't get more "cycling" than that.

It may have a different release title in the USA so check it out.

.

A british film came out in 2006 called "The Flying Scotsman." This is a true cycling film in every sense of the word - about the life of world title holder, Graeme Obree and his struggles against childhood bullies, depression, and the UCI.

Doesn't get more "cycling" than that.

It may have a different release title in the USA so check it out.

.

Same title in the USA. Watched it last night on cable. Good movie.

Just in case anyone is interested, and hasn't seen it.

I have several copies of "American Flyers" available for free.

I found them in a discount bin and bought them last year to give away to anyone that would consider sending money to the Livestrong Foundation. I ended up raising a little more than I spent on the DVDs.

The movie is not a cinematic masterpiece, but I like it, and it is about cycling. Still happy to send a free DVD, for just a promise to consider donating, no actual donation is necessary. ;)

Worth the time to watch just for a couple of OK cycling scenes, and if you think Rae Dawn Chong is cute, she is in it too, although she doesn't do any riding.

Send me a PM with your mailing address if you would like a copy, and I will send one along. Only about 10 left of the 25 or so I originally got. If you do decide to donate, it is tax deductible, and directly to Livestrong Foundation.