Breaking Away

• After I ended the test review the other day with some comments on Life is Beautiful, one of your classmates remarked, "I love that movie. I love Italians. They're so happy." Trying to be a more "serious" English teacher (you know, like the ones who make it their mission to cure the incurable romantics of the world), I replied, "Have you ever seen the movie Breaking Away?" After her answer in the negative, I gave a capsule summary, focusing on the Hoosier teenager who idolizes the Cinzano Italian bicycle team and who assumes the personality of an Italian himself. He's emotional and romantic and speaks American with a cheesy Italian accente and eats linguini and serenades some Indiana University co-ed who is way out of his league, except she falls for his fake Italian exchange student line. Maybe that will get you incurable romantics to watch the film, even though it's much more than that.
  
  Made and set in 1979 rural Indiana, it's about four newly graduated high school seniors who have to make some serious decisions in their lives. College? Work? Marriage? Professional cyclist? Just the kinds of decisions you are making now (any aspiring cyclists out there?). It's provides realistic and intesting dialogue, fine acting, and a climactic scene that's both predictable and surprising.
  
  And, for all of you "serious" people out there, the Italians in the movie are unlike the lovable Benignis and Fiorellis of the world, the ones who really don't exist anywhere except in the movies, or in their own imaginary worlds. Despite its realism, I predict you'll still get caught up in the lives of four ordinary boys and carried away by the romantic music, which includes some some classical opera cuts from Flotaw, Mozart, Mendelsohn, and Rossini. Here's a line you're bound to like when you hear it, from the amusing character named Cyril, played by a young Daniel Stern (who'd go on to be the "other" Wet Bendit in Home Alone): "I was sure I was going to get that scholarship. My dad of course was sure I wasn't. When I didn't, he was real understanding, you know. He loves to do that. He loves to be understanding when I fail. " That's good old teenage cynicism spoken like an adult, not some fool.
• Rent this film and watch it with the family or friends over the holidays. This is a solid PG rated throwback flick. There may be a stray curse thrown in somewhere, but for the most part, the movie is as pure and simple as an old fashioned Indiana jumpshot. Swish.