American Anthem (1986)

While this movie doesn't rank high for entertainment purposes, I certainly relate to the movie, not because of the Gymnastics, but because of what Steve was put through as a child, just as I was put through by my own mother to the point she permanently lost parental rights of me. Don't get me wrong, foster care system was no fun either because of all the stigmatism that comes with being a foster child. The only good things I can say about the foster care system, it did break me out of that vicious abusive cycle as it also gave me various experiences to draw from, but on the other hand, having to do go through daily beatings on school grounds and be treated like I couldn't learn or do anything all because of me being a foster child, learning disabled, and having to deal with epileptic seizures that were only progressively getting worse until I had the laser brain operation done to be rid of them things permanently when I was 20, is no proper treatment of a foster child either.As for my social life, that was only corrected via Cross Country running as well as Track & Field as a distance runner. I was one of the top distance runners in the state of Michigan despite the facts I had to keep my adrenaline in check in attempt to prevent the seizures from happening during the races thus I had to strategize my races, and I was taking 2,700mgs of Tegretol per day, that's a downer, thus you would have thought that would have slowed me down.The whole relationship thing seemed it wasn't well prepared, but did have some good points in there too.While Steve go through periods of quitting, this is one area where I differ. While I have had setbacks, I don't quit. It was so bad to the point, I was like, how dare anyone tell me I can't do something, especially in areas that I am exceptionally good at and yet, they attempted to hold me back in those same areas trying to make me out as if I couldn't learn anything. Example, yes, I ended up dropping out of college due to funds and other reasons, but eventually, I went back and no wonder why I was able to do 4 years of education work including preparing for and taking all 4 CPA exams, all the while earning my Masters of 51 quarter credit hours with a 3.67 overall GPA on a 4.0 scale, after having earned 90.5 quarter credit hours for my BBA within 15 months to earn a 3.88 overall GPA on a 4.0 scale. All of that was done within 28 months. On the other hand when a school forces you to retake "General Math" in 8th grade when you already passed that very course in the 7th grade with the second highest overall grade for the year out of 31 students, and then use the excuse my records were lost in the mail, that's very bad. They even attempted to hold me back in the 9th grade, but only claim it was high school level as if it was any harder, when even the "Pre-Algebra" course didn't have anything new in it until the 4th quarter.

I personally thought this movie had integrity and strength throughout from beginning to end. It showed the battles young people have to face to live up to not only others expectations of them but their own expectations of themselves. Some tasks are harder than others and its normally because either you don't feel your good enough or you don't feel others see you as good enough. If you give up you never find out if you really did have it in you to succeed. This movie did an awesome job of representing that. The gymnasts in the movie were excellent, the acting was top notch. The fact that they did film the movie in an old run down building and still made it into a wonderful experience is amazing. I would love to see more movies just like this to show to my own kids. It shows them to never give up on your dreams. That is why I loved this movie.

There's really not much better than the high concept films of the '80s, and this one has it all. Ever notice how in these films, everyone in the ENTIRE TOWN seems centered around whatever miraculous achievement the star is involved in?In this case, it's a whole group of friends, a whole family and a WHOLE TOWN focused on gymnastics! This movie made me want to rush out and become a gymnast, though I think that may be tempered by the fact that my teeny-bopper mind wanted to fall into the awaiting arms of Mitch Gaylord.Granted, Mystic Pizza made me want to work in a restaurant and North Shore made me want to...uh...go to Hawaii and make fun of people, but as a film rooted in its conception of gymnasts, nothing's better than the would-be star who fails and fails until he finally gets it right.Hoo-yeah.

I remember that Mitch Gaylord and Janet Jones were two of the prettiest people in the whole bloody world when this flick came out. And their sex scene, while tame, was pretty darn hot just because they were in it.Mitch did his best world-weary, troubled teen bit. Janet was dead-on as the one-dimensional beauty with the "I know you want me" grin plastered on her adorable mug.More nudity, less gymnastics, and this film might have worked.