Inspired by real events.

Rating: Null/10 (27 September 2008)

After the comments that were circulating on the internet a year or so ago (inaccuracies etc.) I passed on this title, but after learning that The Bank Job was directed by Roger Donaldson I decided that The World's Fastest Indian was worth checking out.
I have to hand it to Donaldson he does know how to put an entertaining film together, and in the case of this film the less you know about it before seeing it the better. I was surprised to learn that it was a low budget film but from the cast, 60's setting and cinematography you wouldn't know it. There was no denouement though which was a mistake in my opinion (Donaldson says this was to avoid sentimentality but it seems more like he had to keep the film under 2 hours), it's the only departure from the otherwise fine storytelling on display throughout.
Regarding Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Burt Munro, I saw the 1971 documentary on the DVD and apart from a lack of physical similarity, he portrays Munro as borderline autistic whereas the real Munro came across as a tinkerer, someone with callouses on his hands who spent all of his time doing practical tasks (like a farmer, say).
I think what I will take away from the film will be the sequences shot on the Bonneville Salt Flats (the mountainous setting looks great) and Munro's achievement in building an extremely fast machine on a New Zealand pensioner's salary. It is deflating somewhat to learn that Munro was a frequent traveller to the USA (he visited ten times) and only started competing there when a local time trial held on a public road in Christchurch was discontinued.
Like I said the less you know about the film beforehand the better and even if it is loosely based on real events it's still a good film starring the dependable Anthony Hopkins.