A "Must See" Film for Anyone who Enjoys Real Life Drama

Rating: 9/10 (3 February 2006)

I was first alerted to this film by a piece written in the January issue of Cycle World magazine by Editor-in-Chief, David Edwards. In it he describes his experience of talking his wife into going to the Hollywood premiere. She was reluctant until learning that Sir Anthony "Hannibal The Cannibal" Hopkins, not only starred in the film, but also would be in attendance at the gala. Intrigued by any main stream film that has at its core some correlation with one of my favorite passions, tantalized by the prospect of someone of Hopkin's stature lending his considerable talent to the project, and "hooked" by learning that the subject of this film was a real-life countryman of mine (I am originally from Taumarunui, New Zealand), I immediately put "The World's Fastest Indian" on the top of my "Must See" list. Last night, I got my opportunity. A local Portland motorcycle club with their own Bonneville Salt Flats aspirations (their project streamliner was on display down in front of the seating area in the theater) hosted a Special Benefit screening at a local theater last night for a highly partisan crowd of the fans of two-wheeled transport. Many of these riders were either wearing their leathers, or carrying helmets into the theater. I even met a fellow Kiwi inside who hailed from Nelson (on NZ's South Island)! We are everywhere! I was accompanied by a long time female friend who had also gone with me to that wonderful South American "road movie" about Che Guevarra's life changing trip with his friend on an old battered Norton motorcycle, "The Motorcycle Diaries." So how did this movie stack up? In a word, "wonderful!" Anthony Hopkins' performance is magnificent; the story of an eccentric back yard tinkerer and his obsessive quest to run a collection of cobbled together bits and pieces of mostly fabricated disparate parts into a record challenging two wheeled rocket nothing short of mesmerizing; and his quixotic adventures with the characters he meets along the the long road to Bonneville from halfway around the world completely takes the viewer in. By the time Munro arrives at the fabled locus of Speed and anoints it by peeing on the salt...we are at last where we all want to be: with Burt Munro and his amazing Indian motorcycle. I won't tell you anything more, except...see this movie! Oh...and take your wife, or your girlfriend. She will love it!