sweet movie

Rating: Null/10 (10 June 2006)

If you go to a lot of movies, often you'll see the same preview over and over, and sometimes get so tired of it that you avoid the actual film when it's released because you're sick to death of the trailer. But one preview that made me happy every time I saw it was the U.S. trailer for The World's Fastest Indian, which starts off with the adrenaline pumping power chords of the Cult playing "Wolf Child" over a succession of quick cut racing imagesa customized 1920s Indian motorcycle shooting across the desert, down a two lane highway with a squad car chasing it, outrunning a biker gang at the beach, Anthony Hopkins skidding at high speed across the ground after wiping out and screaming defiantly the whole timethen switches to the revved up police siren guitar wail of the Clash doing "Police On My Back," and you think, man, this is going to be a cool flick about a hell bent for leather old dude giving the young hot shots what for. But when you see the film, there's no Cult or Clash on the soundtrack, and Anthony Hopkins' character, Burt Munroa real life New Zealand racing legendturns out not to be some fired up old geezer, but rather a polite, mild mannered old guy with health problems due to angina who likes to tinker with his motorcycle and is determined to get to America to participate in the Bonneville time trials before he gets too old and infirm to make the trip. Most of the suspense of the movie comes not from whether he'll set the land speed record, but from whether he'll run out of money or keel over dead from a heart attack before he even gets there. The movie is mostly about how Munro makes it from New Zealand to America on nothing but a few bucks and a gentle, sweet disposition that charms everyone he encounters along the way, including a horny widowed Dianne Ladd in a lovely cameo. Truly a great feel good movie that's never saccharine or phony. The filmmaker previously directed a documentary about Burt Munro, and his love for the story shows in every frame.