American Flyers is on NBC Sports right now

[ravenmore]

I saw Breaking Away before I was into cycling and enjoyed it. I watched it a few times since I've been cycling and appreciate how accurate most of the cycling stuff is. I called BS on the truck drafting bit the first time. I've actually done it myself now, lol.

[halfspeed]

Breaking Away was quite well received and surprisingly popular when it came out. It was a small independent film that achieved mass market success and many credit it with inspiring much of the success of the independent movie business over past three decades. It may seem "cheesy" to younger audiences because the themes have been done and redone so many times in the ensuing years. After seeing a lot of poor imitations, it's hard not to tar the original with the same brush.

[mustang1]

ditto: gotta copy.

one of suckiest films ever. wasted 1:5h of my life.

I still have it on in the background occasionally tho

[roadwarrior]

C'mon....Jennifer Grey was in it (it may have been her first film, I'd have to check) and Alexandra Paul, too. She was the Virgin Connie Swail in Dragnet with Akroyd and Tom Hanks. She later became a psychotic environmentalist that makes Al Gore seem sane. She was also in Baywatch.

Costner was only three years into his career when he did this movie. It's funny because he had done Night Shift with Micheal Keaton and Silverado before he did Flyers. Flyers was not well written. It was done by Steve Tesich who also did Breaking Away, and also wrote The World According to Garp. It could also have been the way they cut the movie but I am not sure anyone really knows what the health issue was with the family (he's got it too!!!)...aneurysm? When you read the film description it refers to a tumor. Then Marcus starts bleeding from his ear? He miraculously seems to survive with a mere ice bag. And since he's a doctor, you'd think he'd know what was going on with his own health.

Muzzin trying to ride David off into the abyss was pure magic.

The water bottle trick works in cat 4 races.

[canam73]

Another early Costner gem, if you like that sort of thing, is Sizzle Beach. It's so bad that the originally studio dumped it and then Troma (of Toxic Avenger fame) picked it up and distributed it unedited as a comedy. Funny for about 10 minutes unless you are a drunk college kid.

[eofelis]

We only watch AF to see the parts shot in the Colorado National Monument, "The Tour of the Moon." It's one of our local rides. They have that route all out of order in the film. Otherwise, yeah it's a stinker.

[ravenmore]

Another early Costner film that is one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time is Fandango. I highly recommend it if you're wanting to kill some time.

[EventServices]

Badham directs American Flyers.
Peter Yates directed Breaking Away.

Tesich wrote the screenplays for both.
He also wrote the screen adaptation for Garp, but the book was John Irving's.

Breaking Away won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and was nominated for Best Picture. Also Dave Stohler's mom was nominated for best supporting.

American Flyers was not nominated for anything but fastest channel change.


I bought my first racing bike, a Colnago Super, from a guy in the road race scene from BA.