American Flyers (1985)

Memorable, crazy movie

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"American Flyers" makes for some decent sports entertainment if you fancy competitive cycling; but even as sports movies go, the '80s offered better options. I have to admit, it was on-the-cusp-of-stardom Kevin Costner's confidence in the role that kept me in this game. It wasn't until the 90-minute mark that things actually got pretty good. Not just with those scenic mountain passes, but it also finally attains some of the emotional weight it's been dancing around all this time (which has been mostly McDonald's commercials and a soundtrack right out of a beer commercial). And then it just . . . stops. There wasn't really anything in that last race to get all tense about.

..o.k., a three, maybe.Firstly, even given the age of this dog, this movie is so-o-o-o unrealistic when it comes to the subject of bike racing. Didn't anyone get it back then? I mean, no scenes of a tight peleton or any drafting. Folks taking flyers off the front with no coordinated breaks and no teamwork to speak of. Absolutely no depiction of legitimate racing tactics, no blocking, no pacelines, etc.But the real corker was the dialog. I mean, why pay rental bucks on this one (or even TIVO it on cable) just to watch over-the-top product placement. For example, the guy gets seduced by the girl who attributes their meeting to the fact that she had to wait for a quarter pounder at Mickey D's? C'mon.How could Rick Denman (of "Bikes, Camera, Action", who did the racing shots in Kansas) get sucked in so bad? Hollywood infects everyone! This one's off the back and dropped like a bad habit.

Terrible movie about cycling. Why can't Hollywood make an honest movie about a sport? I think if they would be honest, they would find that people would not be bored (like I was in this one), but more interested in the subject. Costner makes it watchable, but what's with all the hair. Beards, mustaches, etc, I thought being covered in hair was a 70's thing not an 80's thing. They could have left out the disease thingy, people who cycle don't ride around wondering when their head is going to blow up. Where did they come up with that? I suspect this movie ended many careers, and I'm surprised that it didn't bring down Costner with the others. If you are a cyclist you might want to watch it for laughs.

It's easy to pick on this movie. Personally, I like bicycle races, it's more or less part of popular culture in my country (Belgium). So I do like the subject but the movie gives me the feeling they aren't focusing on the same sport I adore so much. The reason is not that it's an American race, those have existed as long as the races in Europe. The US even were one of the first countries that joined the UCI (World Cycling Organization, for the smart asses UCI is it's French name). Many immigrants imported their local cycling races to the States where they were popular among the working classes (as in Europe). So I don't accuse the US of not having a cycling past, they just focussed their attention more towards basketball, baseball, American football and athletics.It just doesn't seem like cycling because the cyclists never gain a certain form or rhythm of competition. They just practice individually and perform good at those couple of races. But that's not reality. Lance Armstrong for instance races in many races for months to gain a certain rhythm that's good enough to win the Tour de France again. Off course, that would have made the movie dull and leaves less place for the Hollywood drama or the competition between the Americans and Soviets. But I liked the little part they offered the greatest cyclist ever, Eddy Merckx who won almost every big race in his career (only Paris-Tours he was unable to win).I don't know why this movie was made. It more or less makes me think of Victory (Escape to Victory) where PoW's offer to play a football (soccer) match against a German team and escape during half time. Hollywood tries to use sports very popular in (some parts of) Europe but not in the States. Why? Profit? To promote these sports in the US? Both?