Even more August '85 means more John Candy and yet even more weird science

Sorry there was no '80s Roulette this week, but I wanted to finally get this edition of the newsletter posted. August '85 is breaking me, and I want to get it finished so we can jump back and wrap up December 1981 sooner rather than later.

This was the week my life changed.

I left Chattanooga with my father, and we drove our U-Haul all the way to Tampa together. It was an awkward trip, because the move was largely motivated by me being totally out of control. My parents saw this as a reset, a way for me to start over, and it was important enough to my dad to get me into school in Tampa that we moved before we finished building our new house. It was just me and him in a small apartment near the school, and we moved with just enough time for me to acclimate and get my room set up before school began.

Going to the movies was an easy way for us to spend some time together without talking, which is how I ended up in a theater seeing Year of the Dragon with my dad. It was our first trip to the Plitt Four, which at the time was the only theater in Brandon, the small Tampa suburb where we lived. It's funny how clearly I remember that trip to the theater, especially considering how much time I'd end up spending at the Plitt over the next five years.

It's a weird grab-bag of a week, with seven titles that cover a broad spread of genres and styles. There is at least one movie here that is beloved now, and several that are largely forgotten. It's a little bit of something for everyone, so let's dig right in with one of the several attempts Hollywood made at turning Kevin Costner into a movie star...

AUGUST 16

American Flyers
Kevin Costner, David Marshall Grant, Rae Dawn Chong, Alexandra Paul, Janice Rule, Luca Bercovici, Robert Townsend, John Amos, Doi Johnson, John Garber, Jennifer Grey, James Terry, Jessica Nelson, Tom Lawrence, Brian Drebber, Judith Jordan, Katherine Kriss, Jan Speck, Greg Walker, Sig Frohlich, John J. Caraccioli, Barbara Barron, Robert Anderson, Peter Boyles, K.C. Carr, Martin Chenoweth, Jim Flanagin, Steven Burch, Kate Sullivan, Gregg Hayden Bilson II, Christine Blackwell, Michael Harshberger, Brad Peterman, Chris Zeismer, Emanuel Alongi, Eddy Merckx, John Barvik, John Bowen, Scott Christopher, Wesley Falker, Lindsay Hankins, Ray Hilliard, Fritz Johnston, Scott Noakes, Brian Serchinger, Bruce Thompson, Splinter Wrenn, Pat Ahern, Matt Barnes, Robert Barnes, Michael Brown, Jeff Burrows, Keith M. Chatfield, Jeff Cloud, Larry Douture, Tim Draeger, Boe Freeburn, Richard Getz, Bob Grummel, Charles Hansen, Jeff Hartmann, Tom Hartmann, Scott Havlick, Tim Herrin, Sam Hilliard, John Holcombe, Greg Joder, Craig Kappes, Keith Keever, Uli Kick, Dan Klaussen, Tommy Knox, Todd Kube, Dave Langdon, Kean Leader, Jeff May, Eric Michieli, Bryan Miller, Phil Miller, Dirk Mynatt, Bill Nelson, Mark Peterman, Doug Peterson, Lindon Schultz, Randy Sclar, Mark Southard, Dave Taylor, Peter Thron, Danny Valerio, Steven Van Zandt, Robert Ware, Scott Weber, Bruce Whitesel, Rod Yoder, Pat Zeller
cinematography by Don Peterman
music by Greg Mathieson and Lee Ritenour
screenplay by Steve Tesich
produced by Paula Weinstein and Gareth Wigan
directed by John Badham
Rated PG-13
1 hr 53 mins

Two estranged brothers reunite to enter a punishing three-stage bike race through the Rockies while they work on their relationship.

John Badham was on top of the world in 1983. He had a great run as a director starting with his breakthrough cultural sensation, Saturday Night Fever. Dracula was a Broadway sensation when he was tapped to direct the film version, and the same was true of Whose Life Is It Anyway? He had back-to-back hits with Blue Thunder and WarGames, stepping in on that one after Martin Brest was fired. Studios trusted him with hot properties and high concepts, and movie stars seemed to like him.

Warner Bros. was so high on him that they signed him to a producing/directing deal, and the first thing they set him up with was a screenplay by Steve Tesich, the guy who won the Academy Award for Breaking Away. I understand why that would be exciting to any producer, especially since this script is also set in the world of competitive bike racing. It feels like the kind of thing that would have been irresistible… which is why it’s such a bummer that the film really doesn’t work. There’s just too much going on, but also it feels like nothing happens at the same time. It is a busy film, a nakedly manipulative film, and it never connects on any of the big emotional swings that it takes. It feels like Badham tried desperately to figure out how to bring the film to life, but Tesich just didn’t build the proper structure. I like Tesich overall as a writer. It’s impossible to dislike Breaking Away, and I think his script for The World According to Garp is a marvel of adaptation, somehow wrestling the essence of John Irving’s sprawling novel into the runtime of a film. I also quite like Four Friends, the Arthur Penn film that is drawn largely from Tesich’s own life. It’s why I find it so difficult to break down why this one doesn’t work. It’s not technically inept, but I find myself bouncing off of it every time I try it again.

Marcus and David Sommers (Kevin Costner and David Grant) haven’t seen each other in a while as the film opens. Marcus is a sports doctor, while David’s still in school and apparently on the verge of failing out. Their father died from a cerebral aneurysm, and their mother (Janice Rule) is worried that David’s showing signs that he may have the same condition. David refuses to see doctors about it because he genuinely doesn’t want to know. He just wants to live his life, and that includes competitive biking. Marcus invites David to spend the summer with him, ostensibly so they can cycle together again. In reality, Marcus wants to test David and find out if he’s in any danger. David is suspicious, but he loves his brother and wants to spend the time with him anyway. Marcus and his girlfriend Sarah (Rae Dawn Chong) work together at the Jackie Robinson Sports Institute, and Marcus wants to use David’s inherently competitive nature to trick him into taking the CT scan. The two of them swing from combative to connected, back and forth, and on their way to the cycling race called The Hell of the West, they pick up a hitchhiker who becomes David’s love interest, the free-spirited Becky (Alexandra Paul). The movie is at its best when it’s just about two brothers trying to reconnect. That’s not enough for Tesich and Badham, though, and they layer on so many more soap opera elements that it overwhelms whatever real sentiment might have worked on the audience. Sarah’s ex-husband turns out to be the leader of the team that is the main opposition to David and Marcus in the race, and he’s such a raging dickhead that it makes you question Sarah’s judgment in the first place.