La carrera de la vida

Continuing my plan to watch every Kevin Costner movie in order, I come to his final movie of 1985 American Flyers.

Plot In A Paragraph: David Summers (David Grant) trains on his bicycle every day, hoping someday to be as good a racer as his older brother Marcus (KC) Relationships are explored as two brothers compete in a gruelling bicycle race, named "The Hell of the West"

Directed by John Badham, American Flyers is brilliantly shot, nicely paced and the bicycle races are exciting (despite the obvious ending) especially during a frightening scene when someone loses control of his bicycle high up in the mountains.

The performances are all interesting, and well played. KC is more subdued here, than his flashier turns in Fandango and Silverado, but it's a performance with depth. with solid support from the lovely Rae Dawn Chong, John Amos and Alexandria Paul

It has a few problems, such as it leaves a lot of unanswered questions, what did or didn't the mother do, during the last few weeks of their fathers illness and did one of them actually have the hereditary problem?? It's never disclosed. Then the villain of the piece, one minute he is a giant A-hole, then you think he's not that bad, and maybe a bit misunderstood and just angry. Then he attempts to murder someone, and you think WTF?? I suspect some scenes with him may have been left on the cutting room floor.

All in all, American Flyers is a feel good movie, that has a real story with believable characters facing some serious problems.

Don't write this off just because it's a bicycle movie; it's more than that. If you happen to like bike riding, this is an absolute must-see. But even if you can't even function without training wheels (like yours truly) there's still a lot to love about American Flyers.

If you liked Breaking Away (a bike riding movie from 1979), you'll be happy to hear American Flyers was written by the same person, Steve Tesich. In American Flyers, two brothers enter into a bike race, and during the training and the race itself, tensions run high! Of course, there's romance along the way, and some brother banter that leaves audiences conflicted about whose side to take.

John Badham's gentle directorial touch is seen in this film; the actors work off each other with a wonderful rapport and have a strong sense of their characters, part of Badham's signature in his directing. He's also known for creating interesting and intense action scenes. Watch the bicycle race scenes to see what I mean!

Not a frequently shown film, but a highly recommended one. A good chance to see Kevin Costner early in his career; you see the spark that made him into one of Hollywood's most prominent actors. Also an early chance to see an odd type of performance from Jennifer Grey, before "Dirty Dancing." You don't have to be a cycling fan to enjoy this poignant movie.

OK. not a cinematographic masterpiece, but there are some great nuggets from a lost period in American bike racing. The film came out in 1985, the year that Greg Lemond broke into the Tour de France and beat his teammate Bernard Hinaut, though The Badger got to win it (Lemond won his first the following year). And the Coors Classic was the best racing outside of Europe, with Team 7-eleven breaking into the continent. The Muzzin character with 7-11 was modeled directly after Alexi Grewal, who won gold in the 1984 Olympics and won the Bob Cook Memorial race up Mount Evans twice. He also had emotional/anger problems. The Soviet team was brought in after the cold war tensions and the Olympics, though they should have been a French team to make it accurate.

You might even see a banner in the first stage south of Boulder with a Denver TV station logo and "Coors Classic" that didn't quite get hidden.

A mushy movie, predictable turns, geographic mistakes in the footage, and some weak acting, but a good movie if you are in, or love, American road racing--and remember how it started in the Rockies.

For me, this is a perfect movie. Don't get me wrong, it's not Godard or Kurosawa, but what makes it a winner is that is that is says exactly what it wants to - with some style and humor. Alternately exciting, sexy, funny, heartwarming and even heartbreaking (yes, really), Badham has created a complete story that doesn't ignore the hard edges of life, but chooses not to wallow around in them either. The acting is first-rate. I can't understand reviews that claim otherwise. This is Costner, Rae Dawn Chong, and even John Amos in their prime. And the cinematography, with wide sweeping shots of the American southwest and pedal-to-pedal racing footage is no less than breathtaking. Any criticisms of this movie seem to be a criticism of the genre in which it was made. But all movies are made within a certain genre. Once you understand and accept the elements of a genre you can get down to enjoying a film for what it is. And for me, this film is a real treasure, one I come back to often.