Inspiring underdog adventure... Highly recommended

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2006)

It appears for director Roger Donaldson the key to success is to work with Anthony Hopkins. The World's Fastest Indian was their second collaboration after Hopkins starred in the wonderful 1984 movie The Bounty (with Mel Gibson). And let me say, this movie is a real treat.
The story is based of the true story of an aging (and ailing) New Zealander named Burt Munro. Hopkins does a captivating job portraying Munro as an eccentric man obsessed with nothing but taking his 45 year old Indian motorcycle to the Bonneville Salt Flats in the US to an annual racing event. Over the years he has tinkered with the motorcycle, pouring his own metal parts for the engine and shaving the treads off the old tires to make them 'run better in high velocity'. Munro is certainly a man who lives and breaths racing and seems determined above all else to achieve his goal.
The movie follows his adventures from trying to raise enough money to make the trip, to his being forced to be a cook on the ship to get to America. He meets many friends along the way and has many setbacks. But what is so charming is his undying determination and blind optimism. He never once loses faith and by the end of the movie, you will come to really feel for the man.
I highly recommend this movie. I would be very surprised if this movie does not clean up in the awards. Wonderful acting, wonderful storytelling. 8.0/10