FuzzyTagz
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Senteur
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
Fatma Suarez
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
sundialpictures-01657
Andrew White pretty much steals the show as Julie's cousin, Arthur, a musician who lost his parents and was injured in a car accident. Not hard to do when you've got charisma vacuums like Mitch Gaylord and Janet Jones playing the leads. What you've heard about this film recycling elements from Rocky IV and Purple Rain is absolutely true, but it does so without any of the style or interest. I've also seen reviews that trash Alan Silvestri's bombastic score, and I'll admit that it's melodramatic in the extreme, but it's also one of the few things aside from some great gymnastics footage that kept me awake. It's a real shame considering a great film could be made about gymnasts. This just isn't it.
Fluke_Skywalker
'American Anthem' is an awful sports melodrama starring Olympic gold medal gymnast Mitch Gaylord and Mrs. Wayne Gretzky as... gymnasts. From the director of 'Purple Rain', covering many of the same themes, but without Prince's music to bolster it. There was potential for some cheesy fun here, but the whole thing gets so bogged down in its family melodrama that any fun is sucked right out of it.Gaylord certainly had teen idol looks, but his acting had less range than a slingshot. But in his defense no actor could've done anything with this drivel. Even the montages are lame, and for an 80s film that's a no-no.
Wendyhj
I didn't get to see this film until a year after it was in the theaters, one of my first experiences of seeing a movie on VHS (my parents didn't have cable or a VHS player). I was working as a camp counselor at a summer camp for the mentally disabled with a few weeks of youth summer camp in a small town east of Seattle the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. It was an important formative experience of my youth. I watched this movie so many times in the decade following, and I had the theme song on cassette, (I can still hear it in my head "Two hearts beat as one together" 25 years later). It it is viewed in the cultural light of 1986, and you are still young at heart, are a fan of competitive gymnastics, and can remember what young passionate love is like, you should enjoy this movie. Makes me want to watch it again!
BeccaSanders
I have to give it a 10. I had a life size poster of Mitch Gaylord on the back of my door from 85-92! There was no crush that could match my crush on Mitch. I would have seen any movie that he was in, gymnastics or not. Shoot, he was the reason I watched the Olympics back then. American Anthem is a great movie. It had good characters and you were really pulling for them. Granted, I was a kid when I saw it... but as far as 80s movies go... this one belongs in the ranks of Dirty Dancing, The Breakfast Club, and Sixteen Candles. I borrowed the video from a friend and remember keeping it for years. She came and got it a few days before I left for college!! I haven't seen since, but I'd buy the DVD if there were one!
