Growing up…the movies of Ray Harryhausen were a huge influence on me. I was an imaginative kid…always making up stories, having imaginary friends pretending I was on fantastic adventures. When I grew up I wanted to be the captain of a sailing ship so I could go on adventures like in Jason and the Argonauts or the Sinbad movies that Harryhausen created. I didn’t realize that when I was a kid in the 1970′s sailing ships had long since become floating museums and not a realistic means of transportation or exploration. Exploring the seven seas by sailing ship as a swashbuckling adventurer seemed like a realistic career path for me. I watched most of Harryhausen’s movies on a little television with “rabbit ears” we had growing up. I remember seeing Jason and the Argonauts and being amazed when the gigantic statue of Talos came to life or in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers because I thought the flying saucers were real. Mostly I remember the Sinbad movies on television. When I would see a commercial that one was coming on I would get insanely excited. The monsters he created seemed so life like armies of battling skeletons, a fight between a dragon and a cyclops…it was the stuff little boys dream of.

The only movie I saw on it’s original release on a big screen was Clash of the Titans in 1981. I remember seeing it at a Drive-In Movie Theater along with two other movies. We used to pop our own popcorn at home and bring it in a big paper bag in our station wagon. I don’t remember the other two movies that played but I will never forget Clash of the Titans. I was amazed at Pegasus the flying horse, completely frightened by Medusa and I admit I secretly wished that I had a golden mechanical owl named Bubo.

When I was in college I came to admire Ray Harryhausen even more because growing up…I just thought it was normal to go on a sailing trip and get attacked by a giant squid. I went to school for graphic design and I worked on an animation that was only a few seconds but the drawing of 30 pictures to get 1 second of animation left me in awe of Harryhausen’s stop motion animation he used to bring all of these monsters he created to life. If you needed a creature or monster created for a movie in the 50s through the 70s – Ray was the man. His stop motion animation and movies entertained and inspired the likes of future fantasy story directors like George Lucas, Tim Burton and Steven Spielberg all of whose work were also great influences on me. Once I realized that sailing the seven seas as an adventurer wasn’t really a career choice…Harryhausen’s movies provided me an inspirational direction for me to get involved in doing creative design work in print, online and with video.

As I write this blog post…it’s making me want to go back and watch all of his movies again because they are still that good. In the coming weeks I am honored to include an interview with Marc Lougee who directed an amazing short stop-motion animation film called “The Pit and The Pendulum” based on the Edgar Allan Poe story which was produced by Ray Harryhausen. Marc utilized stop-motion animation for the creation of his film and utilized social networking sites such as Twitter and YouTube to do some of his film promotion online. Stay tuned!

The title of this blog post also happens to be one of my favorite movie quotes of all time. Because it’s said by Alexandra Paul when she finds out that Kevin Costner has a cerebral aneurysm in the movie American Flyers. It’s always struck me as an odd and funny thing to say in such a situation. You might say “Why is Eric sharing this?” Well, because you see…I have a dirty little secret. I am a huge fan of bicycle racing.

I grew up in Fitchburg which annually held the Longsjo Classic Cycling Race – little known fact – it’s the second oldest bike race in the United States. Every year as a kid I remember getting excited to go see the racers fly at superhuman speed through the downtown of Fitchburg. I even saw Lance Armstrong ride and win the race pre-cancer in 1992. The speed, the crashes…I was hooked for life.

July brought the Tour de France – held annually where all the world’s most talented cyclists fall on France for a month long bicycle race. As a kid I didn’t have the internet or a million television channels (I know I sound like Statler from the Muppets) I would eagerly anticipate the Wide World of Sports coverage every Sunday for 1 hour recapping everything that happened over the course of the previous week. Now of course you can get LIVE coverage on the Versus Network everyday or can listen to any number of live feeds online.

So to curb my thirst for cycling, I would watch movies…and there have been some good ones…and I admit a few bad ones too. So here without further ado are my favorites of all time in alphabetical order:

• American Flyers (1985) ◊◊◊◊◊
  Kevin Costner & David Grant play brothers estranged after their fathers death. Costner plays a bike racer that convinces Grant to compete with him in a cycling race called The Hell of the West to repair their relationship. Great bike racing footage & great quotes.
• Bicycle Thief (1948) ◊◊◊◊◊◊
  Also known as Ladri di Biciclette – This was directed by Vittorio De Sica. It’s a touching story with a moving portrait of after-war life in Italy. A workman spends a whole day looking in vain in the streets of Rome for the bicycle someone has stolen from him. Truly a masterpiece.
  
• Breaking Away (1979) ◊◊◊◊◊
  Coming of age film about 4 friends try to break away from their townie, reputation while fighting with nearby college snobs. Stars a young Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Dennis Christopher. If you have not seen this, rent it right now. Seriously. Jump on your bicycle and ride to the rental store or get it on your NetFlix list because it’s that good.
• Quicksilver (1986) ◊◊◊◊◊
  Kevin Bacon plays a yuppie who loses his job and becomes a bike courier in San Francisco. Also stars “Larry” Fishburne (before he became Laurence Fishburne and Louie Anderson (who does NOT ride a bike…just thought I would point that out). Add this to your 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon repertoire.
• Sunday in Hell (1976) ◊◊◊◊◊
  Also known as Forårsdag i Helvede, En – Documentary filmmaker Jorgen Leth delivers an amazing view of Paris-Roubaix the one day stage race over cobblestones commonly referred to as the Hell of the North (not to be confused with the fictional Hell of the West in American Flyers). A masterpiece of cycling cinematography in a study of the dramatic battle that ensues.
• The Triplets of Belleville (2003) ◊◊◊◊◊
  This animated feature, directed by Sylvain Chomet concerns a cyclist named Champion who enters the Tour de France and is kidnapped during the race. The woman who raised him, Madame Souza and her faithful dog set out to rescue him. There isn’t one word of dialogue spoken in the entire film yet the story is compelling and truly draws you in.

There have been others – honorable mentions go to fantastic documentaries like the Road to Paris, The Tour Baby and The Hard Road. All definitely worth checking out but I could go on forever on this subject.

So the what is the moral to this story? These movies and documentaries all have great cinematography – but what makes them great is their story. Every year when watching the Tour de France there is a cyclist who comes out of nowhere to surprise everyone usually on a single day or stage. He probably won’t win the overall title but for ONE DAY he is watched by millions cheering him on hoping he can stay clear of the engulfing peleton – made up of hundreds of riders on different teams all working together to chase him down. Most are caught in the final kilometers before the finish but once in a while he succeeds in escaping. The classic underdog story we all enjoy cheering for. So check these movies out when you get a chance and vive le tour!