1). Is there anything in the movie that you didn't understand?
a) The Cutters had probably met each other in school, maybe as early as elementary school. Bloomington is not a very large town, so they might have known each other all their lives.
b) Dave had won an Italian bicycle, which is why he started getting crazy about anything Italian. He probably had never traveled very far from Bloomington, so he had a romanticized view of Italy and Italians.
c) Dave shaved his legs because he heard that all the Italian cyclists do it (maybe to cut down on wind resistance?).
d) When Dave was training on the highway, behind the truck Cinzano, the truck driver was showing him with his hand and fingers how fast he was going — 40 miles per hour, then 50 miles per hour, and finally 60 miles per hour. However, he was going over the speed limit and got stopped by the police.
e) Where Dave and Cyril were talking about Cyril's not getting the basketball scholarship, Cyril says that his father likes to sympathize when he fails at something. He jokes that maybe he'll take the college entrance exam and fail it for his father's birthday present.
f) The police officer was Mike's brother. He had lent Mike the car and warned him that he was going to take it back if Mike didn't stop hot rodding around campus.
g) Moocher punched the college guy because he called him "Shorty."
h) When Katherine ran into Dave, she had forgiven him. She told him she had gotten a job in Chicago and, also, that she and her parents were taking a trip to Italy. (That explains why she wasn't at the Little 500.)
i) Dave's father didn't like anything Italian simply because Dave had gone so crazy over them, speaking and singing Italian, wearing Italian clothes, etc.
j) Mike probably didn't ride the bicycle right after Dave fell off because he felt as though they had already lost. In an earlier scene he had said, "Well maybe those college are better than us." However, when Rod, the college kid rode past with a kind of challenging look, Mike changed his mind and wanted to show them that the Cutters weren't losers.
2) What is the significance of the title, Breaking Away?
This movie is about “breaking away” on many levels. Since the boys are 19 years old, it is time for them to break away from their lives as high school students, including living at home. However, this is difficult for them to do. At the beginning of the movie, they seem rather lost, with no particular goals.
As the movie progresses, many of the characters break away from something in one way or another. Stereotypes are broken, particularly of the differences between college students and townies or “cutters.” Nearly everyone in the movie breaks away from a former self-image.
How have the following people in the movie “broken away?” Broken away from what?
Dave has decided to go to college which is breaking away from his group of friends, even though he will still see them. He has also broken away from his stereotype of Italians, but, at the end of the movie, he has a French girlfriend and starts speaking French, so the romantic part of him (like his mother) does not seem to have changed.
Mike was jealous of the college students and angry that they thought they were better than he was. He tried to beat them, both in swimming and in a fist fight, but couldn’t win either. In the end, however, as part of a team with his friends, he was able to beat the college students in their own arena. He also won back some of his self-confidence.
Rod (the college kid) had a stereotype of the “cutters” and, at one point, says, “They're not good enough [to enter the Little 500].” However, when they won the Little 500 at the end, he applauded them and accepted that they were good.
Dave's dad broke away from thinking his son was a bum or a loser. He became kinder towards Dave after he won the Italian bicycle race. During the scene where they walk through the campus at night, you can see him put his arm around his son’s shoulder. He was also proud of his son when he won the Little 500. [Also see Question #3.]
Moocher was the first of the guys to get a job, breaking away wasting their summer together. He also was the first to get a girlfriend; although he didn't want to tell the other guys at first, he finally told Dave that he and Nancy were getting married, and, at the end of the movie, they didn't hide their relationship.
3) What are ways Dad showed his attitude as changed at the end towards:
a) being a cutter?He gave the boys T-shirts with "Cutters" on them for the Little 500 race. Also, he changed the name of his business to Cutter Cars.
b) his health? He is riding a bicycle.
c) the university? He is riding his bicycle through the campus. He's not afraid of being on the campus anymore because (1) his son and the other “cutters” won the Little 500, and (2) his son is a university student.
4) Dave says, “Everybody cheats. I just didn't know.” In what way was he disillusioned by his father as well as by the Italian bicycle team? How did Dave himself “cheat?”
Dave's father cheated the college student when he sold him a used car without a warranty on paper. Dave was upset that his father refused to give the student a refund.
The Italians played a trick on Dave, causing him to lose the race. They were also unfriendly towards him, totally unlike his stereotype of Italians.
Dave cheated Katherine by making her believe he was an Italian exchange student.
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