Il vincitore

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.

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.

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.

This movie is just a great film. It's about love, life, and family. It's also about being the best you can be. The two brothers in this movie, one who is very sick and one who is racing in a cycling race in the Rocky Mountains, and he has his brother in his heart the whole time. Both are cyclists, but Kevin Costner's character cannot race. The other character, who I don't think I have seen in any other movies, is just awesome, and the love for his brother made me cry. I remember this movie from the 80's when I was just a little kid, and I watch it everytime I see it on one of the premium movie channels. Rae Dawn Chong is also in the movie as Costner's wife or girlfriend, I forget which one, but she also gives a great performance here. The movie is mainly about racing in Colorado, but it's also a touching story about commitment to those you love, and it's a movie I will never forget.

Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant are a pair of brothers named Summers who are not the closest pair going. Both are bicycle racers. Costner was a champion and has now retired from the sport and is a sports medicine doctor. The other one is a talented racer but a playboy and won't settle down to train for the sport and has no great career ambitions.

It's Costner who gets Grant to train seriously by promising to come out of retirement and race with him in the great Colorado bike race known as American Hell because of the stark barrenness of the landscape they race on. What Grant doesn't know is that Costner has an aneurysm which can break at any time and cause instant but painless death. It gives Costner an added incentive to get Grant to straighten up and fly right.

There are some nice scenes with Costner and Grant and Janice Rule who plays their mother. Their dad died of this same thing and the tendency to aneurysm is inherited. There's a couple of women attracted to the Summers boys, Rae Dawn Chong and Alexandra Paul who become biker groupies. I suppose every sport and every musician has them.

The cycling scenes are beautifully photographed in Colorado and are worth seeing the film alone. But the essence of American Flyers isn't sport or scenery, it's the conflict between the brothers who come together in the end as good families do.

You might want to take up cycling yourself after seeing American Flyers.