I couldn’t go to the Little 500 race last week. But it got me thinking about “Breaking Away,” which prominently features that race and was shot in Bloomington.
I love “Breaking Away” because it is a hilarious and sincere movie that is especially fun to watch if you go to IU.
“Breaking Away” is about Dave Stoller, a 19-year-old high school graduate and cyclist who lives in Bloomington. He loves the Italian cycling team and is obsessed with acting Italian. As he decides whether to attend college, he hangs out with his lifelong friends and eventually competes in the Little 500 men’s race.
Steve Tesich wrote an exceptional, Academy Award-winning screenplay for this film. The writing in “Breaking Away” is relaxed, smart and funny. There are so many great lines from this film, like “I want some American food, dammit! I want French fries!”
“Breaking Away” is also well shot. Peter Yates, the director, makes great use of fluid camerawork to make you feel the exhilaration that Stoller feels when he rides his bicycle. Yates uses long shots to emphasize the great natural beauty of southern Indiana.
This movie has a lot of dramatic depth underneath its fun exterior. Stoller and his friends have a rivalry with several IU students due to the fact the students look down on them for being “cutters,” a synonym for townies that the filmmakers invented. This rivalry is tinged with elitist overtones, which allows “Breaking Away” to explore class issues.
This inquiry into class leads to one of the film’s best scenes, in which Stoller’s father tries to convince Stoller to go to college. Paul Dooley plays the father, and he beautifully shows the pride and pain he feels for his past career cutting limestone. It’s a heartfelt and emotionally sincere sequence that makes you wish Dooley would act in more films.
One of my favorite things about “Breaking Away” is that it was shot entirely on location in Bloomington and features many scenes on IU’s campus.
This gives me personal connections to even minor scenes, such as when Stoller’s friend Mike runs over a college girl’s frisbee. That scene takes place in front of the Musical Arts Center, a building I walk by every day. It looks the same in 2016 as it did in 1979. There’s something kind of magical about seeing a part of your environment immortalized onscreen. I’m sure you’ll have the same experience if you watch this movie.
“Breaking Away” holds up well as a chronicle of class relations and a paean to the benefits of a strong community. It does so while being as charming and invigorating as a cool summer breeze.
Jesse Pasternack
@jessepasternack
