Across the Tracks

Infobox Film
name = Across the Tracks


image_size = 170px
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director = Sandy Tung
producer = Francesca Bill, Nancy Paloian, Dale Rosenbloom, Robert A. Schacht
writer = Sandy Tung
narrator =
starring = Rick Schroder, Brad Pitt, Carrie Snodgress, David Anthony Marshall
music = Joel Goldsmith
cinematography = Michael Delahoussaye
editing = Farrel Levy
distributor =
released = 1991
runtime =
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
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imdb_id =

"Across the Tracks" is a 1991 American independent athletics film drama directed and written by Sandy Tung and stars a young Rick Schroder.

Plot

Across the Tracks is the story of two brothers who have gone very different ways in their past, and who now must learn to deal with each other again. Joe (Brad Pitt) is the older of the two, and has lived the straight "goody two shoes" life. Joe is a good student and runner and is set on winning a track scholarship to Stanford University. Brother Billy (Ricky Schroeder) on the other hand has been a delinquent, involved in drugs and crime, and as the movie begins, has just been released from reform school after serving much time for a failed car theft attempt. While Billy tries to make amends for his past life, it isn't an easy task. Joe still holds a lot of resentment for what Billy has put their widowed mother through, and feels that Billy's return is an unnecessary strain on their family.

Forced to attend another high school on the other side of town, Billy tries to stay out of trouble but his old rivals force him into a fight on his first day, which gets him into trouble with the school authorities. Another friend, Louie (David Anthony Marshall), a highly luring drug dealer who was also involved in the car theft that got Billy sent to reform school, wants him to return to his return life as a criminal. It seems that the only person who still believes that Billy can become a valuable member of society and offers him full support is his mother (Carrie Snodgrass).One day Joe mockingly suggests to Billy that he try out for his school track team, figuring that nothing will come of it. Nevertheless, Billy goes out asks the coach at his school for a tryout. Billy hardly looks like a track star in his black high top chucks and greased back long hair, but during the tryout demonstrates surprising speed, and the coach immediately puts him on the team. Joe is very much impressed by this, and the two start to bond, especially after Joe goes out and buys him a special pair of track shoes as a gift. But Billy's speed soon makes him a contender for the county record, and ironically (since he attends a rival school to Joe's) pits him against Joe in a big meet which will determine whether or not Joe receives that scholarship to Stanford.

Now the pressure is on Joe to prove that he is the best runner in the county, and Joe has trouble handling the competition. The outcome of this dilemma and the determination of Billy's low life friends to get some revenge for Billy's abandoning them for the straight life all come together toward the end of the film, which focuses on how the two brothers attempt to overcome the adversity caused by these outside influences and solidify their relationship with each other.

Main cast

*Rick Schroder – Billy Maloney
*Brad Pitt – Joe Maloney
*Carrie Snodgress – Rosemary Maloney
*David Anthony Marshall - Louie
*Thomas Mikal Ford – Coach Walsh
*Annie Dylan - Linda
*Jack McGee - Frank

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0101268|title=Across the Tracks