Since 2005, Ubeda, Spain, has hosted a yearly film music festival where attendees enjoy suites and themes of classic and contemporary film music performed by a live orchestra in a large yet intimate cathedral. On July 22, 2006, the late Basil Poledouris attended and conducted a stirring suite of main themes from his score for John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian…
George Roy Hill directed a mere 14 feature films between 1962-1988, and yet as film historian Julie Kirgo points out in the Blu-ray’s lively and personable commentary track, he’s largely unknown to many film fans, partly because his work doesn’t bear a specific visual imprimatur or share overtly recurring themes…
Anthony Spinner and Barry Shear reportedly bought the film rights to Roger L. Simon’s 1968 novel Heir in 1969, after which it was developed at United Artists with final producer Bernard Schwartz (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Roadgames, Psycho II) guiding what probably seemed like the right mix of cast & crew for a dark, black comedy-drama about spoiled heirs whose young lives and romantic interludes are ultimately turned upside-down by heroin…
Dubbed by one of the film’s actors as a production akin to ‘catching lightening in a bottle’ and transcending box office odds by being unconventional and critically and financially successful, Breaking Away is also the classic sleeper hit – a movie that few expected would become not only popular, but remain beloved more that 35 years since its theatrical release…
Whether screenwriter Steve Tesich was compelled to revisit the world of cycling or was lured by producers to pen a script building on the success of his Oscar-winning Breaking Away (1979), the resulting American Flyers may have been a modest success upon its original release but…
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