Rick Kagan (Rick Hearst) is a rich kid who has a rebellious attitude and lives to race dirt bikes. The other dirt bikers don’t like him and, when he tries to join the team sponsored by Steve Sinclair (Vernon Wells), the the other members of the team refuses to race with him. Rick competes without a team, while falling in love with the pretty Megan (Colleen Poland) and trying to avoid his disapproving father (John Saxon).
It’s hard to know what to make of this sports film. Rick Kagan is our hero but he’s petulant and spoiled and it’s hard to root for him. You can understand why other people wouldn’t want to race with him. I wouldn’t want him on my team. He takes too many stupid risks and he has absolutely no clue how to be a teammate. We’re supposed to like him because the members of the opposing team are also jerks but Rick doesn’t come across as being any better.
The only interesting thing about this film is that there are a few familiar faces in the cast. Saxon is Rick’s father and gives a better performance than the material deserves. Vernon Wells’s is the sponsor of Rick’s rivals. Cameron Mitchell is the chief of police who tells Saxon that he needs to be a better father. This must have been one of Mitchell’s final movies. He only appears in one scene and he doesn’t look well. Rick Hearst had the screen presence to be a star but, in this film, he’s stuck with a character who is impossible to root for.
Crossing the Line is set in America but it was filmed in South Africa at a time when many productions were boycotting the country to protest Apartheid. Director Gary Graver was a protégé of Orson Welles and was one of the many crew members involved in the lengthy shooting of The Other Side of the Wind. Graver shows a good eye for directing dirt bike races. It’s just too bad the film is far less interesting once it gets off the track.
Through the Shattered Lens 