Overrated

Don't you just love when someone expresses their opinion but makes sure to insult anyone who doesn't happen to agree with it? And perhaps you should check your facts. "Breaking Away" was the sleeper hit of summer 1979 which apparently means it appealed to a broad audience. But I will credit the OP for at least stating their reasons for their dislike of the film. Many here just pronounce judgement without backing it up. The film never fails to make me laugh and entertain me and while I wouldn't call it a masterpiece I do think it deserved its Best Picture nomination, apparently making me "shallow and knowing very little about cinema."

I do know a lot of about cinema (as my masters degree will prove) and Breaking Away is a great little film. Note I said "little", because this was never designed to be a big, grand drama of epic proportions. It's about people in a small town with small lives. Its very simplicity is what makes it work. It's a great summer movie full of nicely realised characters who are at a turning point in their lives. I'm sure almost all of us can relate to it. The film gives us enough to understand them and their way of life, and to care about them. And while it is mostly light-hearted and "feel good", it has just the right touch of bitterness under its surface to give it some depth (Mike's resentment at the college kids who think they are better than him, Dave's disillusionment at the Italian racing team whom he had idolised until they play dirty and make him crash his bike, Cyril being beaten up, Moocher putting his fist through the time clock after he is insulted by his boss less than a minute into his new dead-end job). These kids are devalued for who they are, but they want to prove they're good at something (hence the bike race at the end). Overall, it's a nice little slice-of-life from the late '70s about what you want and what you have. I've always seen it as a perfect coming-of-age film.

I suspect that the original poster has read reviews of the film, seen how well respected it is, and was therefore expecting something more than just a little film - and was thus letdown. I have fallen into the same trap myself on occasion, but I have learned not to hold a film up to the opinions of others and I try to judge it on its own merits. It's doubtful you would get a film like Breaking Away these days because it is not "high concept" enough. But films like this do not have to be grim or loaded with taboo issues or violence (like The Deer Hunter) in order to be good and make you feel something. I can well imagine the four main characters from this film talking now as middle-aged men and saying to each other "Do you remember that summer after we'd finished school and we could just go swimming every day and do whatever we wanted?" This film isn't trying to be daring or clever, it's merely trying to be honest. And it does it beautifully. There are no gimmicks or tricks. Is the film particularly original? Not really. Is it entertaining? Yes, hugely. And that makes it special.

And who is this "very obvious" "certain demographic" you are referring to?

I find the whole notion of subscribing to demographics as a means to explain taste an extremely shallow gauge to begin with.

Notice, for all the accusations this poster makes of "shallow" and "cliches and mantras", etc., not a single example from the film is offered as support. I think that speaks volumes.

I guess I am a person who is shallow and knows very little about cinema.


You can't palm off a second-rater on me. You gotta remember I was in the pink!

The OP's post is so off the mark that I'm thinking that the post was made in jest.

I stopped reading the op after the first sentence. What a pompous jackass.

It's a good movie. Simple and entertaining. Very real. Not sure its deserves a best picture nomination but no problem with it getting one. Look at the garbage that got nods this year. Les Mis, Django for starters were an embarrassment.

Pretty safe bet that the OP "overrates" himself on a daily basis.