American Anthem (1986)

Brilliant and touching

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I appeared in American Anthem as an extra; recruited for a part in the cast appearing as "Mitch's Dad's" bike shop 'gang'. The major portion of the movie, filmed in Flagstaff, AZ, was much more 'laid back' than the whole "town rallies around the gymnast" scenes, filmed in Phoenix. Shooting and relocations for scene changes seemed to flow smoothly enough; I don't remember but a day or two of repetitious "take 12" scenarios...and I did follow the shooting of the movie beyond just the parts in which "the gang" and I were involved. It was a pleasure working with pleasant, seasoned Tiny Wells. In the end, however, I was disappointed at the culminated result, and wasn't surprised that American Anthem didn't do better at the box office. Frankly, I would love have loved to have seen a lot of what ended up on the cutting room floor. One completely absent scene that I remember, shot in Phoenix, lit a parade of "Mitch's Dad" and his 'constituents', arriving at the gym on the day of the big meet. There were high, long and rack-shots of a shining, side-by-side parade of growling Harleys, rolling down echoing streets. The head-turning entourage pulled into the gymnasium parking lot as a great black dragon would glide on it's wings from the precipice of it's cave...and the crowds looked on...spine-tingling, classic stuff, and good, albeit absent, material.

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.

A dull film that tried to capitalize on the craze the U.S. had with the Summer Olympics of 1984 in Los Angeles, but came way too late to make any impression with movie audiences. "American Anthem"'s stars are much more interesting than the film itself which is a dud to put it mildly. The movie focuses on a young man (Mitch Gaylord) who gets the itch to compete in gymnastics again after meeting the new girl in town (Janet Jones). She is training for the Olympic trials and of course he starts to compete once again just basically to be with her more. A corny production that has no real pep at all. Gaylord, a former Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics, proved to be a bust as a leading man. He would later appear in a few soft-core direct-to-video adult productions and become a stunt man for several other films (most notably "Batman Forever"). Janet Jones would later marry all-world hockey star Wayne Gretzky after this film. That is her claim to fame, not "American Anthem". Turkey (0 stars out of 5)

I dont know why they rated the movie with 3.7, I think this movie is a GYMNASTIC CLASSIC, I really loved it. I don´t agree with other people that didn´t like it, I remembered when i first saw it, i was like 12 years old and I totally loved the movie and the actress, that is really hot. Well, if you like GYMNASTICS you can´t miss this great movie.