Breaking Away

Breaking Away is set in Bloomington, Indiana, a sweltering backwater in the USA, where the sons of local working men are bored and dream of unattainable college girls. Dave and his three best friends Mike, Cyril and Moocher have finished high school and must soon face up to adult life. They pass the time doing absolutely nothing, for they refuse to wash the university students' cars.

To his father's concern, Dave is a dreamer who burns with the wish to be a famous Italian cyclist, but his mother's attitude that everything will turn out fine proves to be the right one. That summer Dave gains an experience or two that make him mature enough to make some sensible choices. The film is, of course, also about striving upwards, having goals and being willing to make an effort to reach them. The bicycle race at the end of the film is the clearest example of this. There the working-class boys beat the university guys.

A funny and serious film at the same time.