I've caught all the mistakes in the movie, like the little wood ramp he used to come off the curb after kissing the mailman etc., but I don't care because it's my all time favorite movie.
George argiris San diego, ca
-----Original Message----- From: Michael Allison [mailto:banjodoc@earthlink.net] Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 6:06 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Cc: George Argiris; wheelman@nac.net Subject: "Breaking Away", the movie
Hi,
You guys are pretty observant. It was my unusual fate to ride with Steve Tesich, the writer of the film, in New York's Central Park during the early 1980s. The movie had already come out, so I had a lot of opportunities to talk with him about the film.
I'd like to share some of the things he said. The most impressive was his background. Steve moved form Yugoslavia to Chicago and then Colorado as a child. He said his favorite english author was Joseph Conrad, because he was an accomplished writer who learned english as a second language.
Steve said Dennis Christopher was a natural cyclist, and did all the stunts in the movie except the book pick-up scene. Yeah, the seat post was set low for that stunt. I asked if Christopher did the scenes behind the truck, and he said he did, but I didn't ask about the true speeds. Perhaps, because in the early 1960s, a girl friend and I would regularly ride 60mph behind tractor trailers in New Jersey, traveling to a Youth Hostel for the weekend, and we had saddle bags on our our bikes (ah sweet hormones).
Steve said a lot of the movie was autobiographical. If you guys want to be very pedantic, check out the Little 500 scenes: Dave has a bandage on his leg earlier than depicted in the race-the travails of filmmaking and a weak continuity staff.
Michael Allison
New York, NY