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"Breaking Away" was nominated for an Oscar in 1979 when it was made. An Indiana reader writes, "This film is sort of a local masterpiece around these parts because it was made in Bloomington and on the Indiana University campus, and it was about the famous I.U. bike race that is held every year here and known as "The Little 500" (the bicycle version of the Indianapolis 500 car race)." With its contemporary setting, the film provides a good idea of American teenage fashion in 1979.
The film was directed by Peter Yates. "Breaking Away" was nominated for an Oscar in 1979 when it was made.
An Indiana reader writes, "This film is sort of a local masterpiece around these parts because it was made in Bloomington and on the Indiana University campus, and it was about the famous I.U. bike race that is held every year here and known as "The Little 500" (the bicycle version of the Indianapolis 500 car race)."
Dave Stoller is brilliantly played by Dennis Christopher. Dave's parents
are played very convincingly by Barbara Barrie and Paul Dooley. Dave's friends, Mike, Cyril and Moocher, are played respectively by Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, and Jackie Earle Haley.
"Breaking Away concerned a group of four Bloomington boys who have just graduated from high school. They are between 17 and 19 years old. The lead character is a boy called Dave Stoller whose father is a local used car salesman. Dave has fallen in love with everything Italian (including opera, the Italian language, zuchini, and especially Italian bike racing with its gear). He even shaves his legs in imitation of Italian bike riders to his father's disgust. Dave Stoller and his three closest friends from his highschool class (Mike, Cyril, and Moocher) hang out and go swimming at one of the local stone quarries and get into quarrels with the local college students at Indiana University some of whom are about the same age (17-19). The college students, who are more affluent, scoff at the local town boys whom they call "Cutters" (short for stone cutters) because of the local lime stone business that used to dominate the culture of Bloomington and its immediate surroundings. The climax of the film is the "Cutters" deciding to compete against the Fraternity boys of I.U. in the annual bike race. In an
exciting finish, the Cutters win the race and earn the respect of the more affluent and more sophisticated college students. At the end of the movie, Dave has fallen for a Freshman girl on the I.U. campus who is studying French, so, amusingly, his passion turns from everything Italian to everything French.
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With its contemporary setting, the film provides a good idea of American teenage fashion in 1979. The costuming is very true to the period of the late 1970s. In one scene taken on the court house lawn in downtown Bloomington you can see a young I.U. college boy wearing a red and white collegiate outfit--short shorts, an I.U. sport shirt, and red and white striped knee-length tube socks (the I.U. colors) (figure 1). This style was very popular with highschoolers and college students in the 1970s. Another scene shows the lead character, Dave Stoller, in his Italian biking outfit--blue and yellow racing shirt, Italian close-fitting cap, and black spandex shorts. He has already shaved his legs in this image. When not in their riding shorts, the Cutters tend to wear very tight blue
jeans, sometimes cut off very high on the leg, somewhat scruffy tee shirts (but form-fitting and not sloppy as today's style is), and Dave wears a sleeveless white undershirt with his jeans (again because he thinks this is an Italian look).
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