Alright, Twitter. I am embarking on an adventure and you can come with me or you can mute the thread. But for some reason tonight is the night. I am going to live tweet one of my favorite movies of all time.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "Didn't she already live tween Die Hard"? Well, yes, I did indeed. thanks again, @Riverviewtheatr, for the special Inaugural live screen showing. You can read about it here. businessinsider.com/betsy-hodges-d…
So, no, I am not live-tweeting Die Hard again. No, this time it's a film I have seen hundreds of times. Literally. There was a point in high school where I watched it daily. I love this movie. BUT. I haven't seen it in *years*, though i can still recite lines and scenes.
I have dressed for the occasion. 
Yes, Twitter, I am about to live tweet (or tween, if you're me from two minutes ago) Breaking Away, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, sports films ever made. #BreakingAway
OK, I am going to start with the preview. I never saw it at the time, or when I was watching it over and over in the 80s and 90s. I have seen it since, but that's where we are starting. OK! Here we go!
OK, the so-called preview on Apple TV is just a random scene with Mooch and Nancy. YouTube, here I come!
And this should be obvious, but this thread will be nothing but spoilers for this movie. If you haven't seen it I can't imagine why you'd be reading this thread anyway, but even so: Requisite Spoiler Alert #BreakingAway
"The story of four guys in imminent danger of turning twenty". Ha!
"Breaking away. Somewhere between growing up and settling down, it happens to all of us." Nice.
OK, the preview choked me up.
Technical difficulties. I need a password that I don't have to watch it. I will not be thwarted.
Success!!! The way my heart clutched just hearing this sound.
It opens with Mike singing a song about the A&P and did I just sing the whole thing along with him after thirty years, vocal flourishes and all? WHY YES I DID! And am I a little teary-eyed? WHY YES I AM.
Dave, thank you for flipping Mike off for criticizing women who don't shave their legs. I'm not sure I understood why that gesture was back in the day but I sure do now.
"When you're 18 you get to drink and smoke and see dirty movies." Ah, the low drinking age in this country back in the day. Weird.
Life regret: I never found or swan in the quarry, and now it's closed up.
I still say, "He was as normal as pumpkin pie, but now look at him" sometimes about people. Well, OK, usually my cats when they're doing something weird.
OMG Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie.
We are eight minutes in and it's already clear why the movie won best screenplay. Nice work, Steve Tesich.
Mooch, why on *earth* are you trying to play it so cool with Nancy? Also, I would like Nancy's outfit.
I am a little startles to realize I am older than both Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie when they filmed this movie. I was... 11? 12? the first time I saw it. Mike and Dave and Moocher and Cyril seemed really old and now I am their parents' ages. #Time #BreakingAway
"I wouldn't mind thinking I was somebody myself." Ah, Cyril.
OK, b/y this scene with Mike & the episode of Emergency! I saw where some kid gets stuck in a refrigerator explains why I am always worried my cats are somehow stuck in the refrigerator if I can't find them. I think I may have found the only downside to loving this movie so much.
I suppose you've noticed, and I should mention, that I am a terrible typist. I am self-taught and I always miss typos even if I try and check them first so we are all going to have to live with them.
Wow, is Mike ever crabby. I forgot how crabby he is, and how much his friends love him anyway. They really are the Isle of Misfit Toys for each other, and they really do love each other.
Oh my God they are so bad at throwing Frisbees I can't even. I am a former Ultimate player and that just really hurt to watch.
WELL HELLO HART BOCHNER.
OK, now that they're on campus this is a good time to mention that my mom - whose birthday was this week, she would have been 86 - was kind enough to take to me to the IU campus in Bloomington on my own way to college. @chronicallydave wrote about it: bsquarebulletin.com/2020/04/23/col…
@chronicallydave OK, Mike talking about the college football players staying the same age while he gets older is way less creepy than McConaughey in Dazed and Confused. I could've done without the leap from "thirty year old Mike" to "Old mean old man Mike", though.
@chronicallydave Just hit me that they're all 19, figuring themselves out, and I got sober at 19.
@chronicallydave OK, why are those women walking by wearing sandwich boards of art with naked ladies on it? I would also like to see *that* movie.
How many takes did it take for Dennis Christopher to actually be able to pick up the notebook on the ground from the bike? How long did it take to learn that skill? #BreakingAway
Oh, Katherine, he is not Italian.
WELL, HELLO AGAIN, HART BOCHNER.
What's gotten into him, Katherine? Well, clearly something terrible happened in his life to create such arrogance and d-baggery. Maybe don't date him?
I have to believe that's an actual random mail carrier from Bloomington.
OK, that scene with Dave riding behind the truck is perfect. It is a perfect movie scene. Flawless. Only one line of dialogue and yet so much is said. The truck driver - his curiosity and delight? Perfect. So clearly rooting for Dave. Dave? Perfect. Clearly just loving it.
I picked really great movies to love when I was young, I have to say. #BreakingAway
THERE IS A CAT. I didn't have cats until a few years after i saw this movie, so it's an extra-special feature of the film now.
Oh my God he's got a Cinzano ashtray he's using to feed the cats.
OK, I was lucky enough to be able to go to Europe when I was a teenager. It's a long story. BUT. While in Italy I made absolutely certain to drink Cinzano. Just once! But I did. I toasted Dave. Tasted awful to me.
I've been sober over 30 years now, and I don't have a desire to drink today, thank God. I wouldn't drink it today - no love of any film is worth losing my sobriety. But...my younger self didn't know any better and she was really glad about it at the time.
OK, at 51 the punching of the time clock as a response to being insulted seems less cool than it did when I was a teenager.
"I won't have any -ini foods in this house!" SOMEONE GIVE TESICH AN OSCAR, BY GOD!
"He even bought me that guitar because he was sure I'd never learn to play it," Cyril says. WILL THAT BE IMPORTANT LATER?!?
WHY LOOK, THERE'S CYRIL PLAYING GUITAR SO DAVE CAN SERENADE KATHERINE
OK, I have seen this film a gajillion times and tonight is the first night I figure out that the fake Italian name Dave gives Katherine - Enrico Gimondi - is the opera singer he listens to all the time. Ah, Betsy.
OF COURSE Hart Bochner's character's name is "Rod". of course it is.
OK, Paul Dooley sexily removing his pen protecter is more epic at 51 than it could possibly have been when I was 14 or whatever. Bravo, sir.
To this day I have no idea what song Dave is singing. I have tried over the years to figure it out. Maybe tonight the credits will tell me.
Rod and his boys rolling up on Cyril and Dave has real OG Karate Kid Johnny Lawrence/Cobra Kai energy about it.
Though I am 100% certain that Rod and Johnny would have hated each other.
A Ha! The campus bowling alley. When mom took mw to Bloomington I went in there and recited all the dialogue. Acted out the scene as best I could.
One of the guys in the background looks like Dustin Diamond.
Say! I majored in soc, too! #BreakingAway
The whine in "The cutters started it" rivals Luke Skywalker's Tosche Station whine. Well done, Hart Bochner.
Aaaaaand Izod Rod from the swim team has a Speedo. #OfCourseHeDoes.
Even the placement of the four guys on the rocks at the quarry does so well at showing the tension - they used to be lying right next to each other, now they're all in different spots. And then they risk everything for each other anyway.
the Monroe County Courthouse! I remember clearly jumping out of the car and re-enacting this entire scene, word for word, gesture for gesture.
The clip-on tie couples with The Valley of the Dolls is fantastic.
Oh, wow. The scene where Paul Dooley goes back to the quarry... I understand it now in a way I disn't when I was younger. What a great scene.
Holy shamoley turns out Dave's dad is not just a used car salesman but a super duper shady one, at that.
Refund? Refund?!? REFUND?!?!?!?!
I don't think there's been a time I have used my passport when I haven't thought about Evelyn and her passport, carried with her in case there's a new checkout person at the A&P who asks for her ID when she tries to use a check.
Oh, Dave. Those Italian cyclists... I wish i could spare him this. But I can't. He learns and grows from it! But still. So heartbreaking.
If anyone knows what the conversation is in Italian that Dave has with them, please let me know.
OK, if I were in Dennis Christopher's life in any way and I found myself at the other end of that look of disappointment he has while on the side of the road after the Betrayal Of The Italians I would simply load my pockets with rocks and walk into the sea.
UUUUUGH and then they cross the finish line... together, in Mike's car.
How'd they even find each other without cell phones? Life was harder then.
"No, I don't feel lucky to be alive. I feel lucky to not be dead. There's a difference." - Papa Stoller.
"Everybody cheats. I just didn't know" stabbed a knife through my heart.
She smacked him. Not a good look, Kathy.
"You're not a cutter. I'm a cutter." GET TESICH AN OSCAR
Every bit of success each and every one of these actors went on to have is 100% deserved. Holy shamoley - every performance is flawless. They're so *raw* and there's not a false note, not a false moment *anywhere*. THIS MOVIE IS SO GOOD OMG #BreakingAway
OK. We are at the Little 500. I know what happens and I am ON EDGE
wait he was just training Ha Ha
Moocher saying "Say, i din't think people your age still-" hits a little different at 51 than it did at 15.
Now that I am in her age range, it seems so very unlikely that Evelyn is provers but what do I know. My dad was a freshman in college when my Aunt Cindy was born.
AND THERE ARE THE CUTTER T-SHIRTS!! #BreakingAway
Can we just take a moment to really admire the hair in this movie? The styles throughout are a joy. And each of the four guys have just... well, they have perfect hair for their characters. But the crowd scenes! wow. all that hair. So great.
OK. NOW we are at the Little 500. GO, DAVE, GO!
This movie is a little like Star Trek - the physics don't quite work, but who cares? #BreakingAway
FYI, @Arbys is sponsoring a team in this particular race.
@Arbys And here they are singing the IU fight song. This is why I know the IU fight song.
@Arbys I hope everyone has sunscreen on.
@Arbys Dave Stoller needing to switch out and Moocher getting on the bike😭
Cyril getting on the bike.😭
Shorts were shorter in the 70s.
Mike getting on the bike and his brother so excited and cheering, "Go, you cutter, go!" 😭
Taping Dave's feet to the pedals? Badass. Rod yelling, "Pick it up! He's back in the race!"? Priceless. #BreakingAway
That is not the mustache of a college student, Merchant National Bank Team guy.
CUTTERS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!! #BreakingAway
Was a yelling so loud in the final lap that I scared my cats? YES!!!!
Mooch has Nancy and Dave has his folks and Mike has his brother and their radiance fills the screen! And oh, God, Cyril alone is... I am so happy for you, Cyril. I promise.
Ah, the coda. "Cutter Cars" and enceinte Evelyn and College student Dave and the final shot of Papa as Dave greets him with bonjour... Perfect.
This film is perfect. #BreakingAway
The thread seems to have broke here, so just in case:
https://twitter.com/BetsyHodges/status/1412923561384218627?s=20
OK! That's our show! I am grateful that my younger self chose such a fine film to love so much. And a special shout-out to @DennisChristo4 who is On Here and has played many great roles in his life and this, by God, is one of them and I am grateful to you, sir.
The whole cast was extraordinary, from stem to stern (pun intended, I guess?). The directing, the writing, the everything. A fantastic film.
Thanks for following along, whoever did! That's the 🧵! /Fin
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