Rivals (1991)

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Movie
German title Rivals
Original title Across the tracks
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1991
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Sandy Tung
script Sandy Tung
production Dale Rosenbloom
music Joel Goldsmith
camera Michael Delahoussaye
cut Farrel Levy
occupation

Rivals , Also called Road to Hell , is a 1991 American athletic and family drama that examines teenage problems and brotherhood rivalries.

action

Billy Maloney, a teenage car cracker, returns home after being released from the reformatory . He now goes to the same high school with his older brother Joe. Joe uses his running talent there to get a scholarship for the university. He's very popular and is considered a star at the school, while Billy remains an outsider. Joe persuades Billy, who also turns out to be gifted to run, to join a running group as well. Joe tries again and again to help his younger brother, who also suffers from nightmares. When Billy's old friend Louie tries to involve him in illegal drug deals, the conflict between the brothers comes to a head.

Billy thinks her father loved Joe more than he loved himself, but Joe feels very differently. He explains to his brother that her father always pressured him with his high expectations. Billy now actually joins the team of a rival school as a runner and the two brothers compete as rivals on the cinder track. Billy is the faster runner after all. After Joe loses Billy in the race, he loses courage and gets drunk. Here he happens to meet Louie, from whom he takes a box full of drugs after an argument and throws them into the river so that he cannot pass them on to Billy.

Joe doesn't want to start the all-important race afterwards, but Billy convinces him to start. Since they are both very good runners, it becomes a head-to-head race and Billy deliberately lets Joe win because he knows how much is at stake for him. After a brief argument over the matter, the brothers split up and Joe is confronted by Louie about the drugs. A fight breaks out and Billy, who is still nearby, comes to Joe's aid, whereby Louie is incapacitated. Now they are finally reconciled. In the end they say goodbye, Joe gets on the bus and drives to the university because he has received the scholarship.

Reviews

"Young Brad Pitt gives a taste of his charismatic presence as a law abiding student and avid runner in this well-acted and well-intentioned teenage drama about family, loyalty, the temptations of the street, and eternal competition among brothers."

- kino.de

"Sports and family drama for teenagers that takes a realistic look at the problems and hopes of that age group and makes use of their blunt everyday language."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Across the Tracks - trailer and short plot on kino.de.
  2. rivals. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used