General Cycling Discussion - Favorite Film about Bicycles

I've thought about this several times and realized there has to be dozens of bicycling movies.
I'm torn between Tim Burton's classic "Pee-wee's Big Adventure (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0089791) " and the New York bicycle messenger movie "Quicksilver (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0091814) " with Kevin Bacon.
"Blade Runner (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0083658) " has a short sequence of something that looks a lot like a Critical Mass (http://www.bladezone.com/contents/film/image-library/Html/0902547_Roy_and_Leon.htm) ride but it's definitely not a bicycling movie but a cool movie none the less.
I guess your favorite scene in a movie with bicycles applies too, like the ending to the Great Muppet Caper.

I'd like to find and re-watch Breaking Away (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0078902). If I remember right, It had a cool scene where a guy was drafting a semi in traffic and achieving an amazing speed, shocking a bunch of motorists.

It also spawned a TV series (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0080203) by the same name, starring the teen heart-throb Shaun Cassidy.

"The Bicycle Theif" has to be the greatest bike-theme movie, although it really isn't about cycling.

What about American Flyers - Kevin Costner and a guest appearance form Eddy Merckx!

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0088707

Originally posted by Moose
I'd like to find and re-watch Breaking Away (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0078902). If I remember right, It had a cool scene where a guy was drafting a semi in traffic and achieving an amazing speed, shocking a bunch of motorists.

It also spawned a TV series (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0080203) by the same name, starring the teen heart-throb Shaun Cassidy.

Yep. He (David was the character's name) reached 60 mph when the semi got pulled over for speeding. I just watched that last weekend. A friend had it on tape from when it was on the Bravo cable channel. Check Your Local Cable Listings, as they say. :)

Personally, I preferred American Flyer.

Revealing my BMX roots here, but I loved "RAD"! It was such a bad movie, and the acting was horrible, but every once in a while I'll see it and just laugh at myself and remember how excited I was when it first came out!

"2 seconds" is pretty bad as well.

Do movies like "Kranked" and "Drop" count?

L8R

American Flyers does it for me.

(But what about BMX Bandits with a very young Nicole Kidman?)

Whenever this topic comes up I always say "BMX Bandits" which I believe to be Nicole Kidman's first movie.

It was made in 1983, so it is pretty bad!

Breaking Away had a lasting affect on me. I haven't seen it for 15 years but I still remember the scene where
the cyclist is tailgating the semi-trailer. Something I do enjoy when the opportunity arrises.

CHEERS.

Mark

Punch the clock, Shortie !!

I liked Breaking Away (esp the bowling scene) but my favorite is "A Sunday in Hell"

Great stuff, that.

happy riding,
tt

My vote is still with Pee Wee, but I saw a preview for a movie called Bejing Bicycle (or something like that) that looked really interesting. I doubt it will be in wide release (it's one of those film festival type deals that don't usually go into wide release), but I'll post my thoughts on it once I see it.

A Sunday in Hell is indeed magnificent - possibly the best cycling doucementary ever made??

There is a new 'art film' out called Bejing Bicycle (no, it's not the company that makes wal-mart bikes!). Sounds interesting.

Beijing Bicycle is good, about 2 boys sharing a bike because they've both 'bought' it.

I've just remembered a French (Belgian?) film released here in France last year, that was great - Le Vélo de Ghislain Lambert. Hilarious account of a fictional 70s domestique that takes in everything from doping to Paris-Bordeaux.

I found this page that lists movies involving cycling in one form or another. Thought you might find it enlightening. Some on the list are ones I'd never heard of.

http://www.massbike.org/info/movies.htm

2 Seconds.

I enjoyed the Triplets of Bellville.

The Bicycle Thief is a great suggestion.

Breaking Away is cheesy but it rocks.

Was Breaking Away Dennis Quaid's first movie?

Breaking away.. have it on vhs, wouldnt mind finding it on DVD, great movie. I have american flyers too, but I dont really like it, esp compared to Breaking Away.

I enjoyed the Triplets of Bellville.

The Bicycle Thief is a great suggestion.

Breaking Away is cheesy but it rocks.

Another vote for Triplets of Belleville. The music was awesome, and the cyclists, with spindly arms and mammoth legs, were the bicycling cliche writ large.

The Harder They Come (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070155/) is not a bicycle movie, but it is the theft of the bike he spent 3 wks building from old parts that sets Ivan off on his life of crime.

Nasu: Summer in Andalusia


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uUDX5nY98Q

The cool thing is, because they can't use real team/sponsor names, they use sound-alikes

T-Mobile -> P-Mobile
Mapei -> Pamei
etc.

http://www.anime-source.com/banzai/images/articles/nasu/nasu2.jpg

Breaking away.. have it on vhs, wouldnt mind finding it on DVD, great movie. I have american flyers too, but I dont really like it, esp compared to Breaking Away.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00003CX96/ref=dp_olp_2/104-6669252-4581544?ie=UTF8

;)

Triplets of Bellville for sure...

I've thought about this several times and realized there has to be dozens of bicycling movies.
I'm torn between Tim Burton's classic "Pee-wee's Big Adventure (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0089791) " and the New York bicycle messenger movie "Quicksilver (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0091814) " with Kevin Bacon.
"Blade Runner (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0083658) " has a short sequence of something that looks a lot like a Critical Mass (http://www.bladezone.com/contents/film/image-library/Html/0902547_Roy_and_Leon.htm) ride but it's definitely not a bicycling movie but a cool movie none the less.
I guess your favorite scene in a movie with bicycles applies too, like the ending to the Great Muppet Caper.

Just a correction, Quicksilver was in San Fran as I recall, regardless it was a great flick. Loved the no holds barred messenger race scene.

Overcoming featuring Team CSC. http://imdb.com/title/tt0465556/

Cycling movies? Well they are a bit thin on the ground aren't they? For some reason, certain sports have superb movies such as baseball: Pride of the Yankees, Field of Dreams, Damn Yankees and so on while football has almost nothing.

The two cycling movies I like are Breaking Away and American Flyers. Both have their fakey moments from a cycling point of view. But the place where the Kevin Costner character takes his brother to ride with a "son of a *****" to "work on our sprints" was pretty funny. Of course, the son of a ***** turns out to be a really, really nasty and fast dog.

'Breaking Away' for sure, '2 Seconds' is good, as 'The Hard Road'.

Sprints with Eddie is a classic scene, to me. The music choice was cool. Face it, quick dogs make great sprint trainers.

It's funny how baseball has made such great movies. At least football is starting to get some good movies, like 'Remember the Titians' and 'Friday Night Lights'. I grew up in South Texas, an area where football dominates school sports, perhaps even to the detriment of the entire education system (although such thoughts are deemed heresy by many). 'Friday Night Lights' did a fair job of showing that, and brought back memories of some Friday nights long past.

Perhaps the proposed Lance movie will give us a good, mainstream movie about cycling.