Insomnia

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

This film (2002) is a remake of the movie done in 1997 which was a Norwegian story set inside the Artic Circle. The setting is here is Nightmute, Alaska, which fits the constant daylight experienced by the residents. The opening shot shows someone applying blood to a fabric, presumably to frame an individual. Then there are shots of the white Alaskan environment as Detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) rides in a plane over the frozen land with his partner Detective Happy Eckhart (Martin Donovan). His first name will become ironic as the story plays out. As IMDb points out Dormer’s last name in Romance languages implies sleep, which is also ironic here because that is something he will get little of.

They are met by the enthusiastic Ellie Burr (Hillary Swank), a fan of Dormer. (Could her last name refer to the cold exterior?). They meet Chief Nyback (Paul Dooley), an old acquaintance of the visiting detectives. The Chief requested their help although he notes that there is an Internal Affairs investigation going on that may involve Dormer. We quickly realize that there may be a dark side to the protagonist here. Director Christopher Nolan uses doubles in his films to show the negative aspects of his protagonists, such as in the Batman movies, Memento, and The Prestige.

Dormer insists upon seeing the body of seventeen-year-old Kay Connell despite being told all the evidence is in the report. It points to Dormer’s insight and experience. Dormer realizes that the killer took his time to wash the victim’s hair and cut the nails, not applying any makeup. He and Burr conclude the murderer must have known the victim and wanted to erase any traces of her that might connect them. The process was patient and methodical revealing a calculating killer. Dormer observes that the perpetrator “crossed the line and didn’t even blink. You don’t come back from that.” The idea of stepping over the line of legality and morality and the resultant fall from salvation is something that the film addresses.

After examining Kay’s room, Dormer sees that she cut out the picture of her best friend, Tanya (Katharine Isabelle). It is proof that animosity developed between the girls. He also observes gifts that her boyfriend, Randy (Jonathan Jackson) could not afford to give her. Dormer concludes there must be an admirer of some means involved. When Dormer says he wants to visit the school, the local police inform him that it’s ten o’clock at night. It’s the time of year there that has only daylight. Ian Nathan, in Christopher Nolan: The Iconic Filmmaker and his Work. says Nolan liked how the original movie “reversed the poles on film noir.” I assume that means that film noir movies take place mostly in the dark to mirror the dark deeds characters do. Here the light exposes those wrongful actions.

Even though Dormer doesn’t want to discuss his department investigation, Eckhart drops a bomb saying he has cut a deal which means he will testify concerning evidence used in arresting drug dealers. Dormer sees the Internal Affairs action as a means for others to get promotions, indication that selfish, not admirable, behavior is the motive. Dormer leaves upset. This fact makes what happens later question Dormer’s motives.

Dormer presses boyfriend Randy for information and realizes he doesn’t know the mystery person Kay was seeing even after Randy beat her, showing his brutal side. The police find Kay’s backpack which contains a mystery by A. J. Brody. Dormer is trying to discover connections to the victim since he believes it will lead him to her secret admirer who he believes is the killer.

Dormer sets up a trap, saying they are still looking for Kay’s backpack at a certain location. They stake out the area. The scene takes place in a fog on rugged terrain, which is symbolic of mystery and perhaps the inability for Dormer to see what is morally correct. The suspect shows up and wounds a police officer. In pursuit, Dormer fires at a shadowy figure which turns out to be Eckhart. Dormer goes along with the story that it was the suspect who killed Eckhart. Dormer tells the dead detective’s wife about the death, and it is ironic when she tells Dormer not to arrest the person who killed her husband. She doesn’t realize that she is actually telling Dormer to kill himself.

Burr is now investigating Eckhart’s death. Again, ironically, she doesn’t realize that it is Dormer she is after. He hides his gun just as he hides his criminality. The lawful here becomes the unlawful, as morality is turned upside down. Dormer cannot sleep. The brightness of the day will not allow him the luxury of escaping from his deeds into the relaxed darkness of dreams. He thinks he sees Eckhart among other policeman, as if the man is haunting him. Dormer is suffering from guilt, which is a major element in Nolan’s films: the leaving of the family in Interstellar; the drowning death at the beginning of The Prestige; the possibility that Leonard is the cause of the death of his wife in Memento; the torment the main character feels in creating a weapon of mass destruction in Oppenheimer.

Warfield, the IA investigator, calls Dormer at the restaurant where Rachel Clement (Maura Tierney) works. (Does her name imply that she is the opposite of the inclement weather in the area, and can bestow individual clemency?). Dormer is nasty to Warfield, which may rise out of his guilt that his past wrongful actions will surface.

The police found a .38 caliber bullet at the foggy area and Dormer doesn’t let it be known that he also picked up the .38 caliber weapon left by the suspect. He shoots a bullet from the .38 caliber gun into the body of a dead dog and exchanges the casing for the .9 caliber bullet that killed Eckhart. The lack of sleep causes sounds in the police office to appear loud and disturbing. However, it could also mean that his world has become distorted by his upending the moral order in his life. Burr gives him a report to sign to close out Eckhart’s death investigation. Possibly due to a guilty conscience, he doesn’t sign it. He tells Burr to be thorough in her investigation. We may have here the compulsion found in Edgar Allan Poe perpetrators to confess their crimes.

As Burr takes another look at the evidence and finds inconsistencies, Dormer gets a call from the killer, Walter Finch (Robin Williams). He says he saw Dormer shoot Eckart and pick up Finch’s gun. He knows that Dormer is experiencing insomnia, and that he hides his clock to not remind him of how much sleep he is losing. At the end of the conversation he says, “We’re partners in this.” It shows how he is the demonic replacement for Eckhart. Finch may be a manifestation of Dormer’s darker self, his evil double, another element of Poe’s writing appearing here.

By bringing the victim’s best friend, Tanya, to the dump where her body was found and intimidating her by saying he will reveal that she cheated on her best friend with Kay’s boyfriend, Dormer gets Tanya to reveal that Kay’s secret admirer was Brody, the crime novel writer, who is really Finch.  

Finch calls Dormer again, and again, shows how well he knows him by telling Dormer his state of insomnia. He says that no one would believe him if he says that the shooting was an accident because of the scrutiny on Dormer in the IA investigation. Finch says that he’s not who Dormer thinks he is. It is an ironic statement because it suggests that the surface an individual projects is not the reality beneath. That point can be applied to Dormer also. Finch says he is not a murderer, just like Dormer thinks he isn’t. But then Finch raises the question that maybe the shooting of Eckhart wasn’t an accident. Nolan likes to insert enigmatic possibilities in his stories.

Dormer finds out where Finch lives and breaks into his apartment. Dormer sees pictures of Finch so he can now recognize him. Finch left a piece of paper at the top of the door so when he returns and finds it has fallen, he knows someone is there. He runs off and Dormer chases after him across a river filled with floating lumber. Dormer falls in and almost drowns. Does this scene imply that Dormer is unable to reach steady moral ground?

Dormer returns to Finch’s apartment and receives a call from Finch telling him to feel at home by taking a shower and resting there. Maybe he can even feed Finch’s dogs. His words are another indication that Dormer and Finch could be doppelgangers. Finch is intelligent because he says Dormer should know he’s not going to return to his place. And the only way he knows that Finch is the killer is because he told him so (although we know that Tanya’s statements point to him as a person of interest). Finch sets up a meeting between him and Dormer. Dormer plants the .38 caliber gun in Finch’s apartment. Dormer is trying to frame a man for a killing he himself committed.

Burr has been following Dormer’s advice about checking out the little details surrounding a crime. She realizes that the shot that killed Eckhart came from a different location and now she discovers, as did Dormer, that Finch, a local writer, is the author of all the books in Kay’s position, one of which was autographed, which means she knew him. Later Burr finds a newspaper that features the LA investigation. She repeats what Dormer once said, “A good cop can't sleep because he's missing a piece of the puzzle. And a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him.” More irony here that Dormer’s protégé is on the trail that leads to himself.

Maybe the best scenes in the film occur between Pacino and Williams. Here they meet on the ferry. Dormer tries to diminish what Finch says about them being in the same situation, not meaning to kill their victims. But Finch is persuasive, saying if it comes out that Dormer shot Eckhart, even if he says it was an accident, it meant that all his IA problems disappeared, which would seem suspicious. It would also ruin his legacy of being an effective cop. It might cause many of those he put away to have grounds to be released, if Dormer is shown to be a cop who alters evidence. Finch says when he was young, he was impressed by the police, and that is why he writes about them. He even wanted to be once, he says, but couldn’t pass the tests. All his statements show how similar he and Dormer are. They speak with their faces close to each other, which suggests they are two sides of the same coin. Finch says that they should steer the investigation toward the boyfriend, Randy. Dormer coaches Finch since he will be brought in for questioning because of the signed copy of the book in Kay’s possession. Dormer tells him not to elaborate, and that the investigation will lead to Randy. Dormer, however, does not reveal that he planted the gun at Finch’s place. After he leaves the ferry, Finch reveals that he taped their conversation, insurance that he has the goods on Dormer.

Finch calls Dormer again and the latter asks if Finch still has Kay’s dress. He feeds that line to Finch who now says that is evidence they can plant on Randy. Dormer really wanted to discover if he could find evidence in Finch’s possession to pin the killing on him. Since Dormer says he can steer the investigation he needs more facts about Kay’s death. Finch says he wanted to comfort Kay when she came to him distraught about how Randy hit her and was fooling around with Tanya. But Kay laughed at him when he held her and kissed her. He says that he hit her to stop her from laughing and his humiliation was the force that led to his beating her. Here we see that Finch’s pathology is deeper than that of Dormer’s. His telling Dormer about what happened is like a confession, an attempt to relieve the feeling of guilt. He says he thinks he will be able to sleep now. The theme of insomnia not allowing one to escape guilt is stressed here. It is telling that when Finch gives Dormer the opportunity to unburden, Dormer hangs up. He can’t so readily expel his guilt.

Finch, during his interrogation, diverges from Dormer’s advice, telling how Kay was afraid of Randy, how he abused her. Then he reveals that Kay said Randy had a .38 revolver that he hid in a heating vent, which is where Dormer hid the gun at Finch’s place. Here Finch is communicating that he knows Dormer was trying to manipulate him and the reason Dormer didn’t want Finch to say anything about Randy was because he wanted Finch to be the prime suspect. Dormer then takes over the questioning once he realizes what Finch is doing. He says that Finch gave the young girl gifts, implying Finch was grooming her, like a pedophile. After Dormer goes into a rage, he leaves the room.

Dormer can’t find the gun in the air vent at Randy’s place. It was a ruse by Finch. The police come and find the weapon where Finch relocated it. They then arrest Randy ironically on evidence that Dormer manipulated to prevent himself from being implicated. Now, instead, an innocent person is targeted for something he didn’t do. Dormer has done the opposite of what a cop is supposed to do.

Dormer and Finch meet again, and Finch says that it’s over because he now can go on with his life, scumbag Randy is in jail, and Dormer’s reputation is intact. He gives the tape to Dormer who disposes of it and points his gun at Finch. But Finch reminds him that his outburst at the police headquarters shows he would be a prime suspect in Finch’s death. Dormer then says he will tell the cops about everything. Finch reminds Dormer he destroyed any evidence of the two ever having a previous conversation that implicated Finch.

Finch is very smart and has thought it all out, except that Burr finds more about what happened. She uncovers a .9 mm shell at the site of Eckhart’s death, which undermines the .38 caliber gun being the weapon that killed Eckhart. She notes in some case files involving Dormer that a .9 mm was used. She encounters Dormer who looks wasted due to insomnia. Burr gives him a hug and can feel the .9 mm gun, and since none of the local cops carry that firearm, she is very suspicious.

Back as his hotel room, Rachel asks Dormer why he is moving furniture around to block the window. Even though it is dark in there, he still says it’s bright. Metaphorically he can’t hide his guilt anymore. He now does confess to Rachel about the case under investigation back home. He describes how a pedophile kidnapped, tortured, raped, and finally killed a boy. Dormer says he knew the man was guilty. Tellingly, he says his job is to “assign guilt.” Now he is placing that guilt on himself. The shot at the beginning of the film that showed blood being absorbed onto fabric involved Dormer taking blood from the victim and planting it in the perpetrator’s home. He admits he knew it “would catch up” to him, and mentions the investigation. He says the “end justifies the means.” He doesn’t sound convinced, probably realizing it is a rationalization. He asks Rachel, who he has put in the position of a clergyperson, what she thinks. She says it might be that it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. But can he live with his actions? And that is the vital question this film asks.

There is an interesting cut to Burr who holds the .9 mm casing and now she must decide what to do, and can she live with her decision? Dormer picks up his badge and gun and decides to go after Finch, no matter the means or the consequences. Burr promised to meet Finch at his cabin where she does not know he killed Kay. He said he had letters from Kay that told of Randy’s abuse. He has no such letters that he could create in time for this visit. Dormer can’t find any evidence at Finch’s empty apartment so he too heads to the cabin. Burr notices Kay’s dress and Finch knocks her out. What follows is Finch getting the drop on the disoriented Dormer. He disarms him and beats him. Burr shows up and Finch escapes to get more firepower. Burr realizes that Finch is Kay’s killer, and he witnessed Dormer shooting Eckhart. Dormer admits these facts and adds that he just isn’t sure if killing Eckhart was an accident. Dormer sneaks up on Finch and they fight. They eventually exchange gunfire. Both receive fatal wounds. The shot of Finch falling dead and disappearing gradually in the water symbolizes the death of Dormer’s darker self.

As Dormer is dying, Burr is ready to throw away the .9 mm casing saying nobody has to know. He stops her and says, “Don’t lose your way,” as he had, forgetting to abide by the law. He says to just let him “sleep.” He can now have the ultimate escape from his guilt in the comfort of an eternal rest.

Galloper's Quests

 Yeah, I'm plugging my most recent novel again. Here are parts of some reviews.

Inspired by the classic novel 'Gulliver's Tales', this edition of Galloper's Quests: The Fall of Earth and the Rise of a New Destiny, a new science fiction novel  by author Augustus Cileone, is a fun read from cover to cover.

 Written with imagination, humor, and a distinctive flair for the kind of narrative driven storytelling that fully emerges the reader from start to finish, "Galloper's Quests" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists and community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections.  – Midwest Book Review

Galloper’s Quests catapults readers through wormholes into a cosmic odyssey brimming with starborne intrigue and high-stakes adventure. Navy Captain Samuel Galloper, a maverick scientist, escapes Earth to prevent his quantum-drive technology from fueling intergalactic war. As he navigates alien worlds—one utopian, one dystopian, one on the brink of annihilation—he battles cybernetic foes, befriends a rogue AI, and falls for an extraterrestrial with secrets that could reshape humanity’s destiny."  —NewInBooks.com

Galloper’s Quests is perfect for fans of thought-provoking sci-fi, especially those who enjoy books that question authority, challenge societal norms, and explore the weight of human choices. If you like stories that mix The Forever War’s military critique with 1984’s oppressive regimes and Star Trek’s exploratory wonder, you’ll find a lot to love here. It’s not a light read, it makes you think, it makes you uncomfortable, and at times, it makes you angry. But that’s the point. It’s a journey worth taking, even if the destination isn’t what you expect. – Literary Titan

Books About Movies

 I thought I would pass along the titles of a few books about filmmaking that I consider worth reading:

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clark, and the Making of a Masterpiece, by Michael Benson.

With praise from Martin Scorsese and Tom Hanks, this book provides a treasure trove of information about the making of this classic film. It details the genesis of the story and how it grew to become one of the most talked about motion pictures ever made.

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon. We get the background of the making of this influential science fiction movie. It portrays how different writers adapted the story by Philip K. Dick and how Ridley Scott brought its unique look to life. Here is a movie that wasn't received well when it was released and now is considered a groundbreaking film. There are interviews with cast members Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young.

The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together by Adam Nayman. Those who are fans of these filmmakers will know the subtitle's reference to The Big Lebowski. Nayman does a terrific job of analyzing the films of the Brothers Coen. Maybe the best book I have read on examining the themes and craft of filmmaking.

Quentin Tarantino: Cinema Speculation. If you want to find out about the roots of this director and Oscar-winning screen writer, and dare to get into his thinking process, this book is for you. You may not agree with his movie recommendations, but you can feel his passion for the films that influenced him. 

Christopher Nolan: The Iconic Filmmaker and his Work by Ian Nathan. This book is my most recent read. Nathan provides background as to how Nolan's films came to be made and the the important contributions of his brother, Jonah. Nathan informs the reader of the influences on Nolan, such as Kubrick and film noir. I happen to like enigmatic, complex films, so I am a huge admirer of Nolan. However, I'm still not sure I want to revisit the impenetrable Tenet.

Eraserhead

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

We recently lost one of the quirkiest and most artistic film directors, David Lynch. Some people hated his work, others love it, and those who love some of his projects dislike others. In any event, he was a challenging filmmaker. I was lucky enough to see Lynch in person at an interview at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. He related that he was an art student in Philadelphia when he saw air blowing through a window which caused his painting to move. He said it was then that he decided to make motion pictures. He said living in Philadelphia was not a pleasant experience as he observed violence and decay. However, the experience influenced his filmmaking. His movies explore the underbelly of existence. Think of the opening scene in Blue Velvet when the camera moves from the beauty of the garden to the insects swarming over a human ear.

Lynch’s first full-length film, Eraserhead (1977), in black and white, gives us that dark view in a surrealistic landscape. To attempt to analyze this unique work in a traditional manner would be unfair to the film. As Roger Ebert said, “to explain Eraserhead would be like cutting a drum open to see what makes the noise – you may get your answer, but you tend to ruin the drum in the process.” For myself, I feel like the main character Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) when he is asked what he knows. His response is, “Oh, I don’t know much of anything.” I think that may be a good way to start to approach this movie. So, I will draw on my own perceptions, and some from others.

The general view is that the story takes place in either an alternative world or at least a sort of post-apocalyptic one on Earth. Or, it is just an objectification of a Lynch nightmare. There is artificial food, presumably the only kind that can exist, and procreation does not end well. The whole of the film could be seen as a satire on how we as a species have fallen from grace and are irreparably damaged.

The opening has a soundtrack that almost sounds like what is in 2001: A Space Odyssey, when the astronaut flies through the psychedelic light show toward the end of that film. We have the image of a man in a suit, Henry with his high, frizzy hair, floating in space in front of what appears to be a desolate planet. (I always thought, when I first saw the movie poster, that Henry’s hair looked like an eraser which fits the title of the film). The camera dives into a black hole where there is an emaciated, disfigured man (or as Ebert suggests one who has burns) looking out a window which evokes a silent scream from Henry. A diseased sperm seems to emanate from Henry’s mouth. The man pulls a lever and the sperm is sucked into fluid where then floats through another hole. Is this image supposed to be a grotesque version of a conception?

                                    

Henry, sporting a nerdish pocket protector, walks through a setting that is drab and barren, with mud, piles of dirt, and tall, filthy buildings. The sound in the background sounds like the drone of machinery, possibly a critique of a world becoming engulfed by mechanization.

He walks into a building that has zigzag carpeting in its lobby, which is what Lynch uses later in his TV show, Twin Peaks. IMDb notes that the pattern may have come from Stanley Kubrick’s influence on Lynch. The effect is one of things being off kilter. The ironwork on the heavy elevator doors has a Gothic feel to it. Henry’s apartment has dirt and grass in it. An IMDb note says that Lynch may be suggesting that below the surface of the human attempt at civilization, there will always be filth and creatures, “both literally and figuratively.” The picture he has of his girlfriend, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart), is in two pieces, one showing her head, as if she is decapitated (a foreshadowing), and thus, a fragmented entity. (The “X” last name of Mary and her parents seems to have something to do with the lack of true identity or individuality).

The landscape appears even more hellish as we hear crashing sounds and smoke emanating from the environment as Henry visits Mary X’s house for the first time. The awkwardness of the meeting with her parents is palpable. Henry scrunches in a corner of a couch, as if trying to recapture the womb experience. We see puppies vying for milk from their mother, their screeching sounds adding to the uncomfortable setting (more foreshadowing). Henry responds that he is a label printer to Mrs. X (Jeanne Bates). But this answer seems out of sync with the fact that Mary X seems to be having some sort of seizure which is only calmed by her mother stroking her hair (a maternal act that Mary X will not be able to sustain). Mr. X (Allen Joseph) says that he remembers that the area used to be a pasture and has declined into a “hellhole,” which implies how civilization has decimated nature. Grandmother (Jean Lange) sits catatonic in the kitchen as Mrs. X places a salad bowl and tosses its contents in her lap. It is humorous and upsetting at the same time, showing the numbing of life here. There is a contorting mechanical cuckoo bird coming out of the clock on the wall. IMDb states that the image may have come from Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend, which is a story about an alcoholic experiencing hallucinations. When Henry attempts to cut up a tiny man-made chicken, it spouts oozing dark liquid and its cooked legs begin to move. It is now Mrs. X who goes into a trance and has a fit. What an inviting meal. One will either shake one’s head or laugh at the satiric thrust of this uber strange boyfriend-meeting-the-family scene.

It gets stranger. Mrs. X confronts Henry by asking if he and her daughter had sex. He is very embarrassed. She proceeds to nuzzle him saying things could get worse. Quite an understatement. Mrs. X says there is a baby at the hospital which is very immature. Mary X questions whether it even is a baby, an accurate assessment. Ebert says the “child” could be “a cross between a fetal version of E.T. and some form of skinned ruminant that has been plagued with an eternal cold that causes it to cry, whine and spit up various forms of goo practically around the clock.” Is the implication that this creature is what the human trace is devolving into – a domestic atrocity? The existence of this wild situation contrasts comically with Mary X asking Henry, like any other wife, if there is any mail.

After Mary X leaves for home because she can’t stand the situation, the child/creature becomes sick with facial pustules and breathing problems. Henry tries being a regular father in this highly irregular situation, taking temperatures and using a humidifier.

What follows is a nightmare, although reality in this film is already unreal. Henry’s loudly hissing radiator divides and turns into a stage revealing the smiling Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near) with grotesquely large jowls. Those deformed sperms from the beginning of the film begin falling on her stage, which she squishes. Henry later encounters these entities supposedly waking up from his sleep, adding to the disgusting aspect of the film. He then has visions of the beautiful woman across the hall (Judith Rogers), who may be a prostitute. They have sex in a tub of water that looks like a witch’s cauldron. The Lady in the Radiator then sings, “In heaven, everything is fine.” The lyrics are ironic since what Lynch is serving up for us is a view of life that is far from heaven.

Henry then sees his own decapitation and his deformed offspring replaces his missing head, as if that horror is what the future holds. His head falls to the street and a boy takes it to a pencil factory where the worker there drills into the skull. The extracted material is used to make eraser head pencils. So, Henry, the nerd with the pocket protector, is an eraser head before actually being reduced to one in this fever dream.

After waking, Henry, who moves like Frankenstein’s monster here (is Lynch Dr. Frankenstein?), witnesses a savage beating from his window, a foreshadowing of what is to come. (The music in the background at this point sounds like sideshow carnival music. Send in the freaks?) He sees the prostitute with a man who has rouge on his cheeks (clown make-up to fit the sideshow feel?) entering her apartment. Henry pictures himself as the creature of his dreams, with the body of a man and the head of his deformed child. He then cuts through the bandages encasing the child, revealing its diseased organs. He then kills the creature with the scissors. Is it a mercy killing or is he trying to abort a decaying future?

Electrical lights blink in the apartment and outlets spark, while Henry sees what appears to be a smooth dinosaur doll head in the shadows. More about evolution? We return to that eerie globe at the beginning that cracks open revealing a hole. The burned/deformed man from the beginning reappears fighting with his levers. Is he a demonic god who has created this fallen world? The last image is of Henry being embraced by the Lady in the Radiator.

Is Henry living in an insane world, or is he himself insane and all this surrealism emanating from his mind? Like the main character in the movie Brazil who finds solace in insanity, is Henry embracing the woman at the end who sings of heaven because that is as close as he can come to escaping the madness? Your guess is as good as any.

Breaking Away

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The title of this film, Breaking Away (1979), not only refers to trying to win a bicycle race but also refers to the characters trying to overcome limitations that others imposed on them, and sometimes, inhibitions that they have imposed on themselves.

Peter Yates directed this movie, and he knows something about four-wheel chases since he also made the Steve McQueen hit, Bullitt. Steve Tesich wrote the screenplay and received an Oscar for his work.

The opening sums up the whole feel of the story. A group of young men walk along a quarry, a place that is a big hole in the ground. Mike (a young Dennis Quaid) sings a funny song about burying his body in the parking lot of the A&P, and having his soul redeemed with trading stamps. Cyril (Daniel Stern who would go on to voice the older version of Fred Savage in The Wonder Years, and act as one of the crooks in the Home Alone films) talks about how he lost all interest in life on this spot when a girl chose another guy. These fellows deal with their difficulties with humor and anger. There is one youth, Dave Stohler (Dennis Christopher), who is different. He speaks with an Italian accent and uses some Italian words. He carries a trophy. He seeks the exotic and is a bike racer who tries to break away from the pedestrian lifestyle that these youths have inherited.

Dave is in stark contrast to the everyday Bloomington, Indiana neighborhood as he rides his bike, singing in Italian. Along with Cyril, Dave’s father, Ray (Paul Dooley) gets most of the funny lines. Ray sees his son as a weirdo bum, wearing “Ity” cologne that attracts flies, saying Italian words, and eating “Ity” food, ending in “eenie,” like “fettuccine.” He humorously says he wants American food like “French fries.” Dave’s mother, Evelyn (Barbara Barrie, who received a Best Supporting Actress nomination) reminds her husband that their son was sickly until he started the bike training, which shows that a dream can aid in escaping life’s obstacles. She is supportive, serving Italian food and calling the cat by his new name, Fellini.

Dad says that he thought Dave would go to college, and then reverses himself by saying why should he go, since Ray never did. Ray says his son should be miserable and tired looking for a job, which is what is supposed to be the working-class way of life. Dad, who has acquiesced to limitations, sees his son’s desire to escape the father’s reality as pointless and a repudiation of the Ray’s reconciling himself to settle for lesser goals. Ray has stooped to working as a stereotypical shady used car salesman. He feels his son is almost like an alien as he shaves his legs like Italian bicycle racers.

The scene shifts to Moocher (Jackie Earl Haley, who later starred in Watchmen and Lincoln among others). He is in love with Nancy (Amy Wright). Moocher is a little guy, but he is dauntless, lifting weights as he talks with her. She hopes to be head cashier at some point. Moocher’s house is run down and needs to be sold since his dad went to Chicago to look for a job. But his wish to find happiness with the girl he loves, whom he later marries, shows another version of finding happiness despite living in poverty.

The young men are unemployed A&P workers. Mike was fired and the others quit, as Mike invokes the Musketeers’ motto of “all for one.” They are loyal to each other, as Dave says Moocher can move in with him when his house is sold. Dave says there are big families in Italy, and they all live together. It shows a desire to have each person supporting the other. Moocher says that Dave is starting to believe he is Italian, to which Cyril says,” I wish I was somebody.” He feels like his life has nothing to distinguish itself. Cyril jokingly says that he wishes he could be a cartoon figure. Behind the humor is another wish to break free of his depressing reality. Mike asks how Cyril became so stupid. Cyril says it was heredity, and then wittingly asks Mike “What’s your excuse?” which shows that Cyril is not as dumb as Mike says.

Mike jumps into the water hole at the excavated quarry and goes into a refrigerator at the bottom of the water as a joke. The others think he is caught and dive to rescue him. However, he already found a way out. It shows the loyalty of the young men to each other, but it also shows the feeling of entrapment and the ability to escape.

The college students show up and Mike is infuriated that they would invade this place that he feels belongs to them. He wants to get revenge by going on campus to stake out the college turf. Mike says that the students have it made because they’re “rich.” Dave says Italians are poor but are happy, to which Mike says, “Maybe in Italy.” It is a minimalist critique of how poverty may take a greater toll in the United States.

On campus, some of the students throw a frisbee around and it gets away from them. It flies into the street and Mike’s car runs over it, to his delight. The male student curses them, calling them “cutters,” which is the term they think is derogatory. It refers to the fact that the local men cut limestone to build the university buildings. So, the implication is that the townies are only fit for labor, not intellectual pursuits. As they watch the college football team practice, Mike laments that he never reached his goal of becoming a famous quarterback despite being a good athlete in high school. He says he must read about the praise of each succeeding football star, and he will never join those ranks. However, he holds onto a cigarette but never lights it because he feels like he should stay in shape. It shows a lingering hope that he may attain recognition someday.

Dave is alone practicing Italian on campus. He is learning in his own way, not as a student, outside the classroom. He sees Katherine (Robyn Douglass) ride away on her scooter. She drops a book, and we have a boy literally chasing after a girl as he bicycles after her to return the book. (Christopher is quite an accomplished bicyclist in this movie). He automatically adopts the Italian accent as he gives her the book, knowing instinctively that his being a simple “cutter” will not win him any points. He says her name is Caterina, and she takes pleasure hearing its musicality in Italian.

Dave gets a flat tire (showing his deflated opinion of his cutter self?) and, in contrast, watches the college boys train for bicycle racing, as Katherine leads them in a Mercedes, an obvious reference to her economic status.

As opera music plays in the background, Ray ponders what he’s going to do about Dave. He says that he’s afraid to look into his son’s eyes because they may twirl like “pinwheels.” Dad is implying the existence of insanity, but those pinwheels may be a reference to Dave’s bicycle, and his desire to ride away from hereditary misery.

A great episode has Dave, after being thrilled to learn that the Italians are going to race in Indiana, goes out on the highway and follows a Cinzano truck. The driver speeds up and holds out fingers to tell Dave how fast he is going. Obviously, this arrangement has been ongoing. It is exhilarating to see Dave literally trying to race away from his limited existence. Humorously, they are going so fast, a policeman stops the truck for speeding.

Another fun scene is when Mooch goes for a job at a car wash. Mike says he’ll have to wash the rich kids’ cars and smile to get tips. They tell him not to forget to write, as if he’s “going away,” which he is from the unemployed gang’s point of view, since they are reluctant to capitulate to defeatism. The boss is nasty because Mooch is a little late and calls him “Shorty,” as he tells him to punch into the time clock. Mooch does so literally, smashing the device with his fist wrapped in a towel. A very short-term job.

There is a hint of Dave wanting to leave the defeatist working-class mentality of his father by wanting to take a college entrance exam just to see if he can pass. The tall Cyril had dreams of getting a basketball scholarship, but it didn’t happen. He says his father always says he “understands,” when Cyril fails. To Cyril it seems his father expects him to fail at everything, and he wants to give him a birthday present by taking and flunking the college test so his dad will have something else to “understand.”

There is an interesting cross-cutting of scenes as Dave serenades Katherine while Evelyn makes a romantic dinner for Ray, complete with romantic music and lit candles. As Dave sings with Cyril accompanying him on guitar, Dave’s parents hear the same words sung that Dave is performing. Evelyn removes the flower from her hair and Ray takes off his pocket protector, a humorous bit of working-class unclothing.

The serenade is a success as Katherine kisses Dave, and they later meet for lunch. She says that, unlike Dave’s exalting the family in Italian life, she says her parents don’t even miss her. Perhaps she, despite her upper social status, is missing something in her life. However, a few college students beat Cyril for his part in the serenade, and Mike vows vengeance. After the cutters and the students, led by snobbish Rod (Hart Bochner), have a brawl in the college cafeteria, the university says instead of fighting, the cutters can compete with the students in the Little 500 bicycle race.

At the quarry hole, Mike thinks Dave will easily win the race, with the others completing the team requirement. But the latter doesn’t want to expose himself as a cutter to Katherine. He continues to devalue his background and hide behind the façade he has created. Mike gets into an argument with the other guys and says he wasn’t planning on wasting his life with them. Cyril then says, “I thought that was the whole plan, that we were going to waste our lives together.” It is an insightful and sad admission. It is at the heart of this story that these young men have lives without dreams, but at least they have each other to share their disappointments.

Then the college students show up on the other side of the quarry hole, which stresses the class divide between the two groups of youths. Dave continues his deception, hiding so that Katherine will not see him with his friends from the town. This arrival adds insult to injury for Mike, and he challenges Rod to a swimming contest. Mike loses, injuring his head on the side of the rockface, a sort of ironic defeat for a hometown cutter of stone.

After that incident, Dave appears to agree to race, which will reveal who he is to Katherine. Mooch says if she really likes him, it will not make a difference. In a perfect world that would be the case, but the world is a flawed place.

After Dave runs a red light that causes his father to stall out one of his test drives with a customer, Ray denigrates his son in the parents’ bedroom, calling him “worthless” and not capable of being smart enough to go to college. Dave hears his father saying these belittling words that could force an offspring to believe in his worthlessness, perpetuating the lack of achievement. However, Dave was inadvertently exposing his father’s deceit since Ray was trying to sell a defective car. They both are confronting their lack of pride in what they are doing.

Which is possibly why what follows is a scene where Ray visits his former friends who still work at the limestone cutting factory. He joins in helping to do some of his former work, which he was proud of performing. When he is walking with Evelyn, she suggests that he give their son a job at the used car business. Ray’s conflicted nature is obvious when he first says the used car business isn’t good enough for Dave, and admits it’s not even good enough for him, but then switches, saying it is worthy of himself. These scenes show that there can be satisfaction in any job or endeavor as long as that is what one aspires to do. Ray does relent and gives him a job washing the cars.

Despite being exhausted at the job, he continues to train with the Italians whenever he has a chance, even in the rain, which shows Dave’s desire to excel. The contrast between his having to overcome obstacles compared to the privileged students is stressed in the shot where he is cleaning the inside of a car while Rod and his crew ride by on their bikes.

When a young man returns a defective car that Ray sold to him, Dave says they must accept the responsibility. Ray keeps repeating “refund,” like it’s some kind of curse word. He suffers a mild heart attack, but is it because of the stress of having to part with money, or is it also due to an unconscious realization that his life is a fraud?

When Dave says he should skip the race with the Italians until his father recuperates, his mother shows him her passport. She says she carries it with her and shows it anytime she needs to present identification. She tells her son that he should do things while he can. The economy of the dialogue here is effective, because just by saying that, she shows she had a dream to travel that wasn’t realized, and that her son should not give up on his dreams.

Director Peter Yates uses music very well here as he employs an Italian classical soundtrack to keep the pace with the bikers. However, the race with the Italian bicyclists does not go well, as the Italians cheat and cause damage to Dave’s bike. Dave rides with the others as Mike says Dave is just a cutter now, like the rest of them. When he comes home, he no longer is talking like an Italian and admits that his father was right about his used car business, since everybody “cheats.” Ray is now upset and hugs his sad son who has lost his innocence and has learned about the unscrupulous reality that can present itself.

He is now ready to show who he really is to Katherine, who when she first sees him in his regular clothes says she liked him the way he “was before,” and he now looks like “everybody else.” They are harsh statements given the context of the movie. But, she, too, wanted to escape from the ordinary, and Dave gave her that. She slaps him as she feels betrayed by his lying performance.

Ray watches Dave tear down the Italian pictures in his room and they go for a walk. Ray says that he helped cut the stones that built the university’s buildings and was young, strong, and proud of his work. But then somehow those buildings  seemed too good for him. He says that all he left Dave and his friends were the “holes” in the ground, which is a metaphor for passing on a feeling of emptiness to the next generation. Dave admits he took the college entrance exam and did well on it. Ray now is encouraging, saying that was “good,” showing how he is proud that Dave excelled on the test.

Mike now admits that maybe those college guys are better than them. Is he serious, or is he using reverse psychology on Dave? In any event, Dave restores the broken bike and becomes committed to entering the Little 500 race.

Katherine approaches Dave on the street and she has now let go of her anger. She says she will be graduating and has a job in Chicago. She will also go to Italy with her parents. The first thought is that she is showing her privileged status. But the fact that she wants to go to Italy, and with her parents, shows how Dave implanted a similar dream into her to escape the ordinary. She wishes him a good trip, and he says he’s not going anywhere. Her knowing response is, “I don’t know about that.” She realizes that Dave is special and will be escaping from his surrounding limitations.

Katherine is not the only one Dave has influenced. Ray admits that Dave’s mother is expecting, so the Italian love of an expanding family has literally taken seed in the Stohler residence. His parents present him and Moocher T-shirts that say “Cutter” on them, which announces that they should be proud of who they are.

The race is not without its drama as Dave injures his foot. The others do their best to help, participating in the race, showing how it is a team effort. Dave has his foot strapped to the pedal which means he must finish the race himself. He does win to the jubilation of his friends and the townspeople. Even Dave’s father leaves his job to cheer his son on, and there is a shot of Rod applauding, revealing he has conceded that the cutters were the best on this day.

The last scene is heartwarming and funny. Dave is now a freshman at the college, and he encounters a French exchange student. They are both riding bikes, and Dave says he is thinking of taking French, acknowledging that the French are the best bicyclists. Dad has come a long way from his previous perception of his son, and is now also riding a bike. As he passes his son, Dave calls out “Bon Jour, Papa,” startling his father, whose expression shows that Dave may have switched from being Italian to becoming French. In any event, Katherine was right, and Dave is most certainly “breaking away.”