The (mostly) true story of Burt Munro and his fastest Indian motorcycle.

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2006)

Burt Munro was a real New Zealander born in 1899, and grew up liking motorcycles and racing them successfully. In 1921 he bought a new Indian motorcycle, a 600 cc bike with rather basic technology that had a top speed of maybe 55 mph. But Burt loved to tinker, and over the years he owned it he kept making changes to give the bike a higher top speed. While still running in New Zealand in the 1950s had gotten up into the 130s. By the time he went over 200 miles per hour at Utah Salt Flats during Speed Week, the little 600 cc engine with side valves had grown to almost 1000 cc with modern overhead cams and state of the art innards.
This movie, starring Anthony Hopkins as Burt Munro, expands on one particular slice of Munro's life - 1962 when he first packaged up his Indian and worked his way to California as a cook on a cargo ship. Totally unprepared for what faced him in the USA, the film shows how he used his charm and ingenuity to get a car, build a trailer, and haul his Indian to Utah. But he neglected a minor detail -- you had to pre-register to make a speed run. For Burt Munro, just another minor obstacle to work around.
The movie takes license with chronology. In the movie he goes over 200 miles per hour on his very first trip when, in fact, he didn't get that fast until several years and several trips later. I suspect other facts were combined or compressed to allow an interesting movie in under 2 hours.
But overall it is a superb movie, more about Burt Munro the man than about the Indian and how fast it could go. Anthony Hopkins was of similar age as Burt Munro in the 1960s, and does a super job in this movie. The DVD has some interesting extras including quite a bit of footage of the real Burt Munro in his 60s or 70s.
Sept 2012 edit: Just watched it again after 6 years, I enjoyed it as much the second time. Very good movie.