American Anthem (1986) User Reviews

Oh, Mitch Gaylord, come to me!

[chefscout · 6/10 · 30 June 2000]

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.

This was my favorite movie for YEARS

[BeccaSanders · 6/10 · 30 July 2006]

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!

Somewhat frustrating

[sgmi-53579 · 5/10 · 19 April 2022]

Somewhere underneath, there is a solid, warm-blanket piece of 80s nostalgia. Fluid, European inspired visuals and a kicking 80s soundtrack move along this mtv-era sports drama. Much of the story is told visually, through montage and flashback. Features some incredible gymnastics, but hampered by some wooden acting and dialogue. It has enough zest for a light recommendation, and would be essential for anyone wanting to zone in on the bygone comforts of days gone by. They don't make em like this anymore.

Destined to fail

[antc · 2/10 · 5 March 2000]

I was an extra in this film, a face in the crowd for the competition scenes. Even then, it was clear that this film was destined to fail. For one thing, it filmed in Phoenix, a seemingly cursed location that didn't produce box office gold until films like Jerry Maguire and Waiting to Exhale came out.

Oh, and the plot was secondary. Remember those weird surfer movies of the 60's and 70's -- the ones whose primary aim was to show off waves, boards and bikinis? American Anthem was like that, but for gymnastics fans. American Anthem might have started an interesting genre had it proved popular.

The set designers were quite the artists. The competition scenes were shot in the bowels of a 60 year old abandoned high school auditorium in downtown Phoenix. This building was literally falling down during production. The fact that they were able to mask this ancient hazard (and that no one was killed during filming) was quite an accomplishment.

Pretty horrible

[preppy-3 · 3/10 · 10 December 2001]

An ex-gymnast (Mitch Gaylord) with severe family problems, meets another up and coming gymnast (Janet Jones), falls in love and (of course) becomes a gymnast again and goes for the gold...or something like that. I was so bored it's hard to remember.

Boring, utterly predictable story with lousy dialogue. Also Gaylord and Jones are absolutely horrible actors...both are beautiful with great bodies but that's it. This isn't really a movie...it plays like a series of (bad) rock videos string together with a flimsy plot. There's almost nonstop music throughout the movie. No characters, no motivations, no nothing...just music.

A few things save this from total disaster--Some of the music is good and compliments the visuals nicely; the movie looks good (in a rock video sort of way); there are plenty of nice shots showing Gaylord in nothing but black shorts and the gymnastics are truly incredible. That's about it.

Also this is the first movie to make it from theaters to video stores in three months! It bombed so badly the studio rushed it out to video quickly to get rid of it.

Pros: Alan Silvestri and Janet Jones. Cons: Everything else.

[Victor Field · 1 December 2001]

Now I know why the logo for Lorimar Motion Pictures had a direct shot of the sun shining right into your eyes - to blind you so you wouldn't be able to see movies like "American Anthem." I saw this movie on video first, and later at a drive-in under its overseas title "Take It Easy" (named after one of the songs by Andy Taylor - yes, the one from Duran Duran - that clogs up this movie) as the supporting feature to "Dirty Dancing." Swayze blew away Gaylord then as he has now (hey, how many movies has Mitch done since then? Thank you).

From the director of another bad movie starring someone with no business acting ("Purple Rain"), this was a very poor time at the flicks. I can still remember the boring scenes, the undramatic gymnastic moments (except for the one where our hero went too fast on the parallel bars, flew off and crashed - but sadly lived to twirl another day), and I can still remember Janet Jones as our hero's girlfriend dancing to synth soft rock instead of the usual stuff.

Actually, Janet's hard body and Alan Silvestri's score (which Mike Clark from 'USA TODAY' dismissed at the time as the kind of stuff associated with political campaign ads - but let's face it, what do most movie critics know about movie music?) were the only good things about the movie - I got the soundtrack album hoping that there'd be some of it, and was not happy to find none of the orchestral stuff there; he only had two synth cuts in amongst the likes of John Parr (did this man ever record anything NOT for a movie?), the aforementioned Andy Taylor and Graham Nash. In other words, like the movie, it sucked apart from him.

Lorimar should've stuck with "Dallas" and "The Waltons."

The good, the bad, and the extra...

[cmeride79 · 3/10 · 19 January 2007]

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.

Thank God for gymnastics!

[Susie-7 · 4/10 · 2 June 1999]

This was a bad movie. The acting was mediocre, the plot was mediocre, and the characters were mediocre. However, the gymnastics were excellent and saved this movie from being a total waste. 4/10 for style, and being mediocre instead of dreadfully awful.

A vehicle to promote Jones?

[pseudonymforcl · 2/10 · 3 April 2016]

Yes she was mostly likable and she is pleasant to look at but the movie is just awful. It seems like one mission of this was to promote her for future work, I don't think it worked even though she seems more than capable. We have seen the small town hero have to go back and work before, this 1986 update to the theme was unnecessary from a movie watchers point of view. It timely exploited the seemingly great guy Gaylord as an American hero, which is certainly is/was. As a high school gymnast I was excited to see it but other than the gymnastics this film is pitiful. The filming/editing of the gymnastics was very good. Watch for the gymnastics but expect nothing else.

Movie about a man with a troublesome childhood and using gymnastics to get back on track

[dodgester · 7/10 · 2 December 2016]

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.

No medal for 'American Anthem'

[Fluke_Skywalker · 3/10 · 4 July 2015]

'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.

One of the most memorable films of my youth

[Wendyhj · 8/10 · 5 April 2012]

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!

Even the competition judges looks bored

[Eddie_weinbauer · 1/10 · 4 April 2015]

where do I begin? The plot that is non existent,Characters you don't understand,nor relate too cause there's no depth to them,or the fact that nobody really care about gymnastics.

I seem to recall they tried a couple of these unorthodox movies like these in the 80s,without much luck. One had a rowing theme starring Rob Lowe,another one had a wrestling theme, starring Matthew Modine.I think they both sort of failed to be the impact they were suppose to be. Don't get me wrong all these sports are probably important for those who compete in them,but the theme don't really do well on film. Unlike boxing or Karate,which both were big themes through the 80s.

I get the feeling there's a lot,that ended up on the cutting room floor,cause the storyline moves way to fast. At one moment, the female lead have an argument with her friend over being late for a workout session. Then suddenly there's bad blood between them for the remainder of the movie? c'mon you gotta build it on something more than that.

The new girl in town falls in love(OFC) with the first guy she meet(who just happens to be the the outcast),after barely speaking 3 words to him.

I can believe in love at first sight in movies by all means. But if you wanna have a storyline above porn standard,it is wise to leave the scenes where "Romeo and Juliet" of the movie, get to know each other over a period of time. HEre she goes for a drive with him,than he ask if she as a boyfriend,when she says no,He just ask if she wants one? And then their together. It seem like they have tried to gather as many 80s clichés as possible,throw them into a blender in hope of making a big script with IT DIDN'T WORK

Wonderful movie

[heidi4chris2005 · 10/10 · 12 February 2005]

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.

I LIKE THE MOVIE

[Edgard-6 · 10/10 · 17 May 2000]

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.

Typical 80's Fluff and I LUV It!

[Dark_Lord_Mark · 9/10 · 7 February 2019]

Pretty standard but fun stuff.

Like Rocky but gymnastics.....I mean Rocky III and Rocky IV......

It's fun, over exaggerated, over acting, unbelievable...porn....I mean it.

It has the washed up star returning to become great again.

The hot love interest who struggles with...well beats me...but she also struggles.

It has the inspiring coach and family issues involving the washed up star who needs redemption.

It's a story about gymnastics and who can be the best....around...nothing gonna take you down.....

It's the gymnastics version of EVERY 80's movie ever....

8.5 out of 10. FUN, OVER DRAMATIC, OVER ACTING, AND VERY 80's!

I LOVE to hate this movie!

[DominicsDad · 10/10 · 9 April 2001]

A movie you hate to admit that you love! Acting is bad, plot is predictable....what more could you ask for in a movie that you love to hate??? Mitch Gaylord is gorgeous though in the scenes where he is in his black bikini underwear! This makes it worth the rental in itself!

okay, but ...

[giuseppe pelosi-3 · 26 June 2000]

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.

Pure Nothingness.

[tfrizzell · 6 August 2002]

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)

a horrible dismount..

[mbat19 · 21 October 2011]

Coming off the highly successful 1984 summer olympics and seen as the hearthtrob of the games, Mitch Gaylord took his shot at the movies with this pic. The plot, such as it is, has Gaylord playing a gymnast, quite a stretch, who meets the new girl in town Janet Jones who is the only thing worth looking at in the movie, as they train for the olympics with a strict coach. Guess what, they fall for each other too. Obvious plot, dumb writing, clichés everywhere. Only if you are a fan of gymnastics, Mitch Gaylord, or Janet Jones and even then there are other choices out there. This and Kurt Thomas' Gymkata were the two and thankfully the only 2 gymnastic movies released. We were spared a Mary Lou Retton and a Domonique Moceanu movie luckily... My rating is one only because there is no zero

It's a Schlock Anthem... and Not As Much Fun As That Sounds

[sundialpictures-01657 · 22 August 2017]

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.