Football player turned gymnast Steve Tevere seeks to join the United States Olympicgymnastics team.[1] Gaylord was a member of the gold-medal U.S. men's gymnastics team at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
The soundtrack was released on CD, LP and cassette by Atlantic Records. The album contains songs by various artists, including two themes from the film, composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri.[2]
The film was a box office flop, grossing only $4.8 million against a $7 million budget.
The film received aggressively negative reviews by critics, especially from famed critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert; with the latter saying the film was "as bad as any movie I've seen [in 1986], and so inept that not even the gymnastics scenes are interesting" and the former calling the film "complete junk; you can see more interesting gymnastics on Wide World of Sports than in this garbage". Ebert opened his print review by writing:
"American Anthem" is like a very bad Identikit sketch of "Purple Rain," the previous movie by the same director. You can almost hear the police artist as he tries to make his drawing, based on half-witted descriptions of the big hit from the summer of 1984:
Q. Who is the star?
A. A major superstar in another field who has never acted before.
Q. What is his personal crisis?
A. He has an unhappy homelife and a father who mistreats him.
Q. What is the suspense?
A. Will he conquer his inner demons and perform once again at the peak of his ability?
Q. Who is his girlfriend?
A. A future star in his field whose excellence inspires him to start trying again.
Q. What's the movie's visual style?
A. Kind of a cross between a concert film and an MTVvideo. Be sure to overedit. And put in lots of shots where the camera peers into the light source, so the heroic youth can be seen in silhouette as he tosses back his head and sweat flies through the air.
With this incomplete description, a filmmaker from Planet X might have made "American Anthem" from the basic ingredients of "Purple Rain." The hero this time is not a rock star like Prince, but a gymnast played by the Olympic champion Mitch Gaylord. But since the movie treats him like a rock star, photographing him not as a sweating, breathing, striving athlete but as a pinup for the girls' locker room, the difference isn't as big as you might imagine.[3]
Years from now (in a galaxy far away), some weary film historian will look back at teen movies of the ‘80s and wonder--what was with those kids anyway? So young, so gifted, so muscular and beautiful--and yet so messed up. So in need of inspiration, of goals, of parents that understand them. So in need of . . . a good script.
If you’ve seen “Flashdance” and “Purple Rain,” if you’ve seen ravishing, loose-limbed bodies pulsing to a thunderous rock beat, then you’ve got a pretty good idea of the main ingredients in “American Anthem” (citywide), a dim-witted film that attempts feebly to breathe some life into the story of a young gymnast’s bumpy quest for success. Directed by Albert Magnoli (“Purple Rain”), this film reminds us only how much these rock-drenched teen dreams need the presence of an incandescent performer like Prince to add a shower of sparks to an otherwise dreary, predictable celebration of teen Angst.[4]
American Anthem currently holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on sixteen reviews, with an average rating of 2.5/10.[5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.[6]
Accolades
Gaylord's performance in the film earned him a Razzie Award nomination for Worst New Star, where he lost to "the six guys and gals in the duck suit" from Howard the Duck.[7]
^Wilson, John (2000-08-23). "1986 Archive". Hollywood, California: Golden Raspberry Award Foundation. Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2012-07-30.
