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BREAKING
AWAY
7/10
USA
1979, dir. Peter Yates, 101m
Breezily enjoyable, refreshingly optimistic version of what is known in
Britain as 'town vs gown', the conflict between well-heeled university
students and the young working-class locals whose noses they so often
put out of joint. But writer Steve Tesich takes the material into unexpected
territory with his deservedly Oscar-winning script, concentrating on one
particular Indiana townie (Dennis Christopher, looking eerily like Beck)
whose way of dealing with his post-teenage insecurities is to immerse
himself in Italian culture - specifically that of the Giro d'Italia
cycle racers. Christopher's eccentricities bemuse his unflappably all-American
parents, Barbara Barrie and Thomas Dooley, and amuse his friends - Daniel
Stern, Dennis Quaid, and Jackie Earle Haley, the latter a gruff-voiced
shorty who steals the picture. Though the story builds to a conventional
David-vs-Goliath climax, with the friends banding together to take on
the cream of the students in a gruelling cycle race, this doesn't detract
from the skill with which Tesich builds up each of the characters and
their relationships. This is a writer's showcase, not a director's, and
journeyman Yates wisely restricts himself to coaxing the best out of his
appealing young leads.
October 23rd,
2001
(seen 22-Oct-01, UGC Boldon)
by Neil
Young
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