American Flyers is one of those movie quandaries, not from the perspective of the movie, but for how it was marketed in the UK. Rights owners Warner for some unbeknown reason chose not to let British cinema audiences see American Fliers; however it was featured in trailers at Cannon cinemas for almost half a year. Then a larger publicity campaign took place on Video. All MGM (now Sony) and Warner rental videocassettes featured American Fliers trailers for a legendary year and a half. Six month prior to video release and a year after release. More oddly with so much publicity very few VHS videos were actually released. Meaning that over here many people had to wait a further 4 years before the movie hit television screens in 1989. In another incredibly strange twist of fate, the TV channel showing the movie, ITV; chose to show the movie at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m. so if reading this the movie does not seem familiar to you that now you’ll know why. In another twist of fate while small ridiculous movies have been released in the UK in DVD form, American Flyers still has not been released this side of the water, and its highly unlikely it will.

American Flyers features a strong cast: David Marshall Grant an actor I always feel was disastrously underused, and one that never seems to age; here are the age of 30 in real life Grant has to star as a young man in his late teens who’s studying is going all to pot. His brother who was supposed to be five years senior was played by Kevin Costner, who had to grow a moustache in order top create the look of maturity, in reality both actors were the same age. Add to the flavour the presence of ever popular 80’s actress Rae Dawn Chong, another underestimated movie star seldom used after the 80’s made way for the 90’s. Chong had a massive collection of movies that all hit UK shores at the same time, Commando, Soul Man and The Colour Purple; here she plays Marcus’s hard but compassionate girlfriend Sarah. Alexandra Paul pops up as Becky a hitch-hiker the trio pick up on the way to the first race. I guess I must ad mention of a then pretty much unknown Jennifer Grey who went on to appear as Baby in Dirty Dancing, and actress who now bears no resemblance to how she looked in the 80’s. Acclaimed director John Badham took the helm of the movie in between two smash hits Wargames and Short Circuit.

From an action point of view, the bike races are incredibly well shot. Camera work moves impressively from parallel shots which include great close ups and audible dialogue, all the time the image remaining clean and straight; to impressive overhead shots that bring in the size of the race and the impressive backdrops. Backdrops being a key issue for me, I felt that I could literally feel the surroundings, it’s a much more innocent view of America which so often to us in the UK nowadays we see so little of, It seems most movies focus on the grittiness and the danger element that seems less and less the sort of lifestyle we want to live.