DVDs in Review

Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 1979)

Title: Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 1979)

Release date: June 28 2010

Certificate: 12

Format: DVD

RRP: £15.99

Rating: 4/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

Watching a successful coming of age film decades down the line becomes even more interesting when you see how the actors came of age and crafted their own individual careers. The big stars who went on from ‘Breaking Away’ include Daniel Stern (‘City Slickers’, ‘Home Alone’), Dennis Quaid (‘Innerspace’, ‘The Big Easy’) and Jackie Earle Haley, who after decades in the wilderness was recently rediscovered and Oscar nominated for his brilliant role in ‘Little Children’. Meanwhile Dennis Christopher’s career stalled, which is odd, given that he’s got the best role.

The four of them star as working class teens who have left school and aren’t sure what to do next. Getting a job seems to be a taboo with the teens who prefer to go swimming in a disused quarry and competing with the snobbish, richkids at the local college. The story centres around Dennis Christopher’s character Dave Stoller, a teen with a real identity crisis – he thinks he’s turning Italian.

He’s become obsessed with the culture, much to the annoyance of his trio of friends and his blue collar parents (an absolutely brilliant performance from Paul Dooley, perfectly balanced by Barbara Barrie). He desperately wants to compete in the Little 500 bicycle race, but the frustrations of getting a job and wooing one of the college girls (who thinks he’s actually Italian) stand in the way.

There isn’t all that much more to the plot, but the key to the overall film’s success is the chemistry between the three friends. They obviously bond over shared loves and frustrations but each has their own identity – they’re not just a selection of wisecracking, mockingly rude morons that rip into the lead character when something goes wrong. They’re friends and it benefits the story. As does the time given to Dave’s parents – his father Ray thinks he’s lost the plot with all this Italian nonsense while his mother Evelyn is far more carefree. Again, it’s these contrasts that make ‘Breaking Away’ work as both a drama and a comedy. 

Under the direction of Peter Yates, the performances seem almost improvised. Yates is best known as an action director (see ‘Bullitt’, ‘Murphy’s War’ and ‘The Deep’) but he has a knack for injecting a lot of humanity around the more fast-paced scenes to make them more resonant. His filmmaking style is rhythmic and assured, but he can still put out all the stops to make a bicycle race in a circular arena thrilling.

This may be dated and dripping with sentiment, but it works. It feels old and familiar like a treasured possession waiting to be rediscovered in an old shoe box. The old tagline for the film really sums it up well: “Somewhere between growing up and settling down...” This film invites you to remember how you finished or plan to finish that sentence.