86TDFWinner wrote:You're very welcome my friend.

Yes, it's definitely NOT BA, but it is a movie about cycling. As you mentioned, there aren't many out there(which is why i created the page), so any way to get the word out on the movie/sport, is IMO, a good thing. I've read a few things that the movie had some cool deleted scenes, and bonus footage, which I'd love to see. Maybe even an interview w/Costner about his thoughts on the movie would be great if they ever decide to re-release it.
I think Kevin Costner would be about as willing to revisit American Flyers as Dustin Hoffman would be willing to revisit Ishtar.
Amidst the ridiculous plot and atrocious acting, there are a few elements and specifics that really stand out:
- Dave is training in blue jeans at the beginning of the movie. Within weeks, he is racing against not only the best in the country, but the best in the world. What a prodigy!
- Marcus exhorts Dave in his training by yelling, "Pump, Dave, pump!" out the window. Keep in mind, this movie was written by the same screenwriter who wrote Breaking Away. He apparently lost all knowledge of the sport over the course of six years.
- Out of all the predictable, cardboard characters, a couple stand out: You have Randy, the goofy fat kid. You also have the obligatory hippie girl as they roll into Madison. Again, it's mind-boggling that the same guy who wrote Breaking Away also penned this pap.
- Cycling fans will get a real hoot out of the Hell of the West sequences. The racers are spread out all over the road. Muzzin, who becomes Dave's biggest rival, grunts and screams every time Dave or someone else puts in an attack. One of those rivals is "Belov," a Russian who we swore was played by John Belushi. He grunts a lot, but it's a deeper, more Stalinesque kind of grunt that comes from deep down in his communist guts. There is also, and I'm not making this up, an African-American rider played by Robert Townsend! You would swear these sequences were drawn up by someone who had never actually watched the sport.
- But the real mark of death, the "666" on the head of this film is the presence of Rae Dawn Chong. If there's a movie that doesn't suck that has Rae Dawn Chong in it, I haven't heard of it. She's typically horrible in this one, as well.
A little extra trivia: Kevin Costner was insecure about his skinny calves, so he wore longer socks than was typical back then in the sequences in which he's on the bike.