Breaking Away

This movie was out in 1979 and I was born in 1972. Honestly it's a very wonderful breath of fresh air to return to those times. This movie is like a trip to Disneyland in comparison to some of the garbage they put out today. A very lovely film about family, endurance, being a teenager, and small town America. A few swear words , no sex or nudity (brief mention of female breasts), and shows a more rough and tumble world but perhaps in some ways a more honest one. Can foster interesting discussions about cheating, honesty, class/status, etc. One big fight scene in the film.

I am surprised at the reviews here on CSM saying this is a family movie. Even the DVD cover said so. This is not a family movie by any means and it is absolutely inappropriate for smaller children and in my opinion for pre-teenagers. Keeping in mind this was released before the creation of the PG-13 rating this film has a family-oriented PG rating. But the language in this alone would merit a PG-13 easily today. Lots of GD said and "s---", bastard, bitch hell damn, every profanity you can think of except the f word and rather frequently at that. The main characters father is bigoted especially towards Italians. Additionally he is a car salesman who is dishonest and teaches his son that it is ok to be dishonest to succeed in that business. He also insults and belittles his son out of frustration for not knowing how to relate to him. Daniel Stern's character makes a very inappropriate comment about women's breasts. The main character also lies as his father does and deceives a girl he is interested in. There is also some fist-fighting in a school cafeteria although it is brief and nobody is seriously injured. I found the movie somewhat entertaining. Definitely watchable albeit a bit slower than what I thought it would be. It picked up and got better towards the end. It was neat to see a 21 year old Daniel Stern before he starred in huge hits like Home Alone and City Slickers. It was also cool to see a 24 year old Dennis Quaid as well. The movie on the whole is worth at least one watch for sure but I cannot stress enough to you, do not let CSM or the "family feature" label of the DVD fool you. This is NOT an appropriate film for children and families and should not be viewed by anyone under the age of 14 in my opinion.

Breaking Away is a wonderful coming of age tale that charts the path of one young man in the thrall of a passion, and the choices he has to make to "break away" from his buddies into adulthood. Parents should know that there is cursing, especially by the dad and one friend, and be prepared to contextualize that. I hadn't remembered that when I chose the movie and had to remind my kid that's not the way we talk. Also there is some objectification of women that we had to point out. But aside from that, the movie encourages young people to be true to themselves and help each other out. My 10 year old was thrilled by the bike races and totally understood why Dave shouldn't pretend to be someone else, and why acting all macho wasn't the way forward for these young men.

I enjoyed it . there is no sex or drugs maybe some language but other than that very enjoyable.