The four are Dave (Dennis Christopher), a good-natured amateur bicycle racer obsessed with the Cinzano Italian racing team; Mike (Dennis Quaid), a stereotypical angry young man; Cyril (Daniel Stern), an awkward defeatist; and Moocher (Jackie Earle Haley), who is optimistic despite reduced expectations from life.
Dave has an understanding homemaker mother (Barbara Barrie) and a chronically complaining car salesman father (Paul Dooley). Mike's older brother is a cop walking the beat (John Ashton). Moocher marries the girl next door (Amy Wright). Cyril apparently has no family.
The focus is on Dave, who romances hottie brunette Katherine (Robyn Douglass) by pretending to be a colorful foreign exchange student from Italy. The college students look down on the local boys, called "cutters" due to the stone-cutter trade once the rage in Bloomingdale.
The four friends decide to show up their arrogant college rivals by beating them in a major local bicycle race held each year. Complications arise, but a feel-good ending is nonetheless forthcoming.
How others will see it. The critically acclaimed Breaking Away surprised observers when it won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. At the Oscars, it won Best Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Score, and Best Supporting Actress (Barbara Barrie). Dennis Christopher won Most Promising Newcomer from BAFTA, despite a series of minor film credits dating back to 1967.
Today at imdb.com, the movie has a fairly high user rating of 7.7, which rises to 7.9 among viewers over 45. This may be partly due to nostalgia for the America of 1979, but really, the movie has something for almost everyone: romance, athletic competition, and the pathos of youth. I is true, though, that non-U.S. viewers think less of it, perhaps to the boorish depiction of the Italian racing team.
How I felt about it. Dave is devastated to learn that "everyone cheats", even his former heroes on the Cinzano team. This scene is curiously prophetic: decades later, a competitor of Lance Armstrong suggested that Armstrong should keep his Tour de France trophies, despite admitting to doping, since all the other riders were doping as well.
Also prophetic: Daniel Stern's character states he would like a job as a "cartoon of some kind" "who gets hit in the head" "and their head comes back to normal." Years later, Stern was in the first two Home Alone films, and his character endures blows to the head that would kill ordinary humans.
There is one scene that strikes me as false. Katherine seeks out Dave shortly after their break-up due to his impersonation as an effusive Italian. She is friendly and happy. This is a strictly cinematic scene intended to put a smily face upon both their actions.
Also bogus is the temporary injury to Dave, which requires each of the other Cutters on the team to, in turn, participate in the race. It would have been more believable for Dave to simply remain on the race the entire 200 laps, but tire near the end to make the contest more dramatic.
The announcer also seems to fixate on the Cutter team. For example, one hardly hears what other teams are in second to fourth positions.
Finally, as someone who is 5'9", it is annoying to have Moocher continually confronted about his short height, even by Dave's own dufus dad. Suppose Moocher was black. Would he continually be called upon it?
But overall, there really is something special about this movie. So, does it come from the director, the script, or the cast? My vote is the director, Peter Yates, who also made at least two other noteworthy movies, The Dresser (1983) and Bullitt (1968).