Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins) on his modified Indian motorcycle in The World’s Fastest Indian , a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy Raoul Butler.
I don’t know much about motorcycles, except that they are loud machines that are a lot less safe than driving a car. I personally hate the sound of a nearby motorcycle, that violent popping and loud engine revving. What I do know about motorcycles is probably what the average person would know, that they are fast, complex machines.
Roger Donaldson’s The World’s Fastest Indian paints the story Burt Munro, who holds the fastest land speed record for a motorcycle under 1000 cc’s and set it months before Burt believed what would have been his death. A key element to this story is perseverance. Anthony Hopkins really bring out the beauty of what it feels like to achieve your dreams and sends out the message that it’s never too late to achieve them.
The opening sequences of the film show Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins) dreaming about the Bonneville Salt Flats, him standing there, and something fast moving rushing towards him. He wakes and realizes he was dreaming. His house, or more of a cabin is filled with mechanic’s tools, odd medal creations and his prized possession and long surving friend, his 1920 Indian Motorcycle.
That morning he goes outside very early and revs his motorcycle. The sounds wakes up his neighbors, George (Lain Rhea), his wife, and their young son, Tommy (Aaron Murphy). Aaron spends most of his time hanging with Burt in his shack while he constantly works on his motorcycle, explaining to him things about the motorcycle as well as his own life experieces. It’s almost as if they are master and apprentice. They two are easily best friends, but in a way, but also share a granson/grandfather relationship.
While at a date at his birthday celebration in which most of the town had come, a biker gang shows up and challenge him to race at the beach, their bikes vs. his Indian. Burt accepts, the first half of the race he leads them by hundreds of yards, but unable to handle a sharp turn, he loses. After that, he is plans to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats and participate in the land speed competition and beat his old record with his Indian.
Getting to America he runs into a few problems, meets interesting and odd people to get to the Salt Flats.
Many of the characters he meet are interesting characters, though are just welcoming pieces of paper, but because of the pace of the film, we don’t know of anything written on them.
It’s very humorous to watch Anthony Hopkins wander his way around the West Coast, having no idea what is going on being that the bottom of the world is just the opposite of America. We also pull for him as he suffers. Anthony Hopkins is one of my favorite actors, because in most roles you want to know more about him, whether he’s playing a cannibal or a motorcycle record breaker.
The cinematography by Director Roger Donaldson shows just how fast paced Burt’s life was, and all his life we was doing his best to catch up with it, being fascinated with things that move past and attempting to go faster than anyone else. The camera sweeps around him as he looks across impressive landscapes, follows him on his cycle and stays put as the Indian bursts past us at incredible speed.
The screenplay, also by Donaldson enriches our minds with words from Burt speaking of life’s lessons and morals, as well as some quote from Confucius.
Burt’s life, is of a valuable hero. Why? Because he did a lot of things for people, but what were they? He cleared the barrier for people who had given up on their dreams, because you are never to old to be able to achieve your dreams.
Burt continued to set records until his death in 1978. Like the tagline this film really is “Based on one hell of a true story.”
Rated PG-13 for brief language, drug use and a sexual reference (Though this is rated PG-13, this a film the kids can go to as well.)
Running time 127 minutes.