Breaking Away (1979) on Netflix
Dave and his friends are cutters, town kids in Bloomington, Indiana. He races bicycles, poses as an Italian exchange student to court a co-ed, and dreams of racing the Italian team.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.7/1027,854 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
Dave, Mike, Cyril and Moocher have finished high school in Bloomington, Indiana, and have no clear plans. The working-class locals, known as cutters, and the university students keep to their own parts of town. The four friends swim in an abandoned limestone quarry. Dave is different in one way: he races bicycles, idolizes Italian riders, and has recently won a Masi. His father Ray, who runs a used car business, is puzzled by the Italian music and food his son has taken up, and his mother Evelyn cooks Italian dishes for the family. Dave tells a university student named Katherine that he is Enrico Gismondi, an Italian exchange student. When the Italian team announces a race in Indianapolis, Dave intends to enter it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Breaking Away (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The bicycling team is based on the 1962 Phi Kappa Psi Little 500 champions, whose rider Dave Blase gave screenwriter Steve Tesich the inspiration for the main character; Blase rode 139 of 200 laps and crossed the finish line as the victor, and he appears in the movie as the race announcer.
- The four friends were played by actors of widely differing ages: at the time of filming Dennis Christopher (Dave) was 27, Dennis Quaid (Mike) was 24, Daniel Stern (Cyril) was 20, and Jackie Earle Haley (Moocher) was just 16.
- The 1992 Bollywood film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, starring Aamir Khan, has certain similarities to Breaking Away, but its director, Mansoor Khan, said he became aware of Breaking Away only after the likeness had been brought to his attention.
- NBC paid $5 million to screen the film on television on May 5, 1980, bypassing HBO and drastically shortening the window between theatrical release and broadcast television, which was generally three years at the time.
- The working title of the script, written in 1978, was Bambino, and Dave's family name was originally "Blase" before it was changed to "Stohler" for the film.
- The film inspired the song "One for the Cutters" by The Hold Steady, which appeared on their 2008 album Stay Positive.
