Breaking Away

Why does this trailer use the music of Beethoven in it?

No, R2, it is the Hebrides Overture (also known as Fingal's Cave) by Felix Mendelssohn.

One of my favorite films from the late 1970s.

"Papa, the Italians are coming!"

I remember vaguely thinking it’s boring back then. Watched it again recently - I was right.

I didn’t realize Isaac Q. Newton was in this.

I saw it at the theater, my dad was a big fan; I was about 7 & don’t remember much, except for a lot of cycling scenes.

Even though lots of aspects of it were made up (i.e. the animosity between the Townies and College students is hardly a thing in real life) if did a good job of depicting small town Southern Indiana campus life well.

It had Hart Bochner in it so all is forgiven.

I love it.! I'm glad I found it on dvd.

Bloomington had and still has a real town gown division. Because of the university, Bloomington is a real outlier in backward south central Indiana. The University is inward looking in its own way, too.

I used to have an office that was across the street from where the Little 500 took place. It became a fairly unimaginatively designed arboretum.

I loved Breaking Away. So much so that I went to IU for grad school. Back then, B-ton was smaller than it is today, and definitely a "college town." Now it's more diversified and larger, but the areas immediately around campus and from campus to downtown (which is an uphill walk) still serve iconic college town vibes.

Breaking Away was filmed in and around Bloomington, on and off campus, and, contrary to R7's inaccurate opinion, there is a huge division between Town and Gown. It is less prominent now than in the 1980's (and before), but at the time of this movie, it was definitely a thing.

The scenes are the quarry are semi-biographical for me. Tons of my friends and I went diving at the quarry. The Little 500 every spring was a glimpse of quintessential Greek life at IU. I have rewatched this film a few times and am instantly transported back to my two years in Bloomington. And I'm grateful for that.

Great film.

His name is Jake!

I recall being disappointed when Paul Dooley wasn't nominated for best supporting actor for his role as the father in Breaking Away.

I love this movie. Then again, I’d love any movie with both Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie, two of my favorite character actors.

The quarries are/were away from Bloomington, in Bedford. The grade change from campus to downtown is negligible. The downtown continues to struggle as does the mall that nearly killed it.

WEHT to Paul Dooley?

I love this film. A few years ago I was working with Barbara Barrie and I mentioned how much I loved it, and she looked at me and said: "You're too young to remember that movie!" I assured her I was not.

She is, by the way, as lovely as you hope she'd be. And a superb actress.

Hart Bochner fucking Dennis Quaid. Now that would have broken the box office.

My brothers and cousin were so inspired by the movie that they had my dad take them to buy bikes (100 miles away), which they then attempted to ride all the way home. I think they may have made it 50 miles.

I vaguely remember watching it when I was a teenager in the late 90’s. The only thing I remember was Dennis Quaid wasn’t as hot as I thought he’d be when he was younger.

It was on network tv all of the time. I loved it as a kid

Hart Bochner in a speedo and Dennis Quaid shirtless in daisy dukes. I couldn’t tell if they wanted to fight or fuck. Oh, and the movie is great

Yes, I applied and got into Indiana University at Bloomington because of this and the bike race. Luckily, I snapped out of it and went somewhere else. Jesus Christ, how different life would have been.

Hart Bochner and Dennis Quaid both young and sex on a stick, raw sexuality, horny energy vibes, I was about 11 yo and thought they'd make a good pair of fuck buddies, but I wanted to watch and join them. ;-)

The thought of Dennis Christopher shaving his legs to improve his cycling gave this young gayling tingles in my shorts.

Thank you, R18, for confirming that Barbara Barrie is a lovely person. That makes my day.

R24: IU and Bloomington are places that people tends to love or hate. I truly loathed the inward looking character of the place and the defensive boosterism.

Is Dennis Christopher still working?

When I finished high school I had to go to university or get a job. No way would I be allowed to “break away” and do fuckall for a few years.

When this came out Dennis Christopher was supposed to be the next big thing but we know how that goes. I haven't seen him in anything in years.

I think Paul Dooley is dead but I'm not positive. I always like him.

Bloomington has a huge homeless population.

Paul Dooley is 94, not dead.

Barbara Barrie, almost 92. Also not dead.

But Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

It's only a few miles from scenic Brown County

At least they wore Speedos back in the days before our current Puritanical Dark Ages.

That film sucks. Thank goodness *I* won the Oscar and not Barbara Barrie!

R 36, at the 'gay' quarry, it was mostly skinny dippers.

I had such a crush on Dennis Christopher after that film. And then he just faded away. I remember it was shown on network tv not long after its theatrical run. Snuggling on the couch with my bf while watching it, and then we fucked all night. Oh, Ray, whatever happened to you?

I went with my 2 sisters to sit in the stands as extras when they were filming some of the race scenes. They put posters on campus and an ad in the Herald Telephone(the local paper- I loved that name)- not many people showed up and they kept moving us around to different parts of the stands as they did different shots. I still have the silly yellow t-shirt they gave some of us to change into so our clothes would be different as we moved. After we finished we went to the Princess Theatre to see 2 old Beatles movies for a dollar. Sorry for the ramble-thanks to OP for bringing up some very nice memories from what feels like a million years ago.

[Quote]I used to have an office that was across the street from where the Little 500 took place. It became a fairly unimaginatively designed arboretum.

Were you at the law school across the street from the library? I was in Bloomington for grad school from '88-'93 at the Psychology Department. People kept mentioning an "arboretum" and I assumed it was at the main entrance with the older buildings and older growth trees. I was shocked that learn it was across the street. There were so few trees!

Is Dennis Christopher the one that's said to be into hardcore BDSM?

I was in Psychology for a postdoc 86-88 and my office was in front, so it looked out on the arboretum. It's now filled with mature trees, but still seems ludicrous because they're fairly uniform distances from each other, like they had no faith people might explore the space.