In a lot of ways, my rewind articles are my favorite to
write. They expose the reader to great films they may not know about while at
the same time give exposure to a great film that a lot of people don’t know
about. What makes this entry so special though is that it’s the first entry for
a film that’s based on a true story, even though the true story itself is so
insane that even Ripley’s Believe it or Not would find this far-fetched.
The World’s Fastest Indian tells the charmingly true
story of Burt Munro’s legendary 1967 record attempt at the Bonneville Flats.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Burt Munro his story is one of
the greatest in the history of sporting, right up there with Olympic “Miracle
on Ice” and the Ali vs. Liston fight. It’s a truly inspiring story about a man
who set his mind on accomplishing the impossible, and spent over forty years
working towards just that.
First, some history on the event. One week a year an event
is hosted at the Bonneville Flats called Speed Week. It’s a big deal in the
racing community because the expansive salt flats are a perfect track for
setting records and many speed records have been set at this event. It’s a
place where the best and brightest drivers in the world show up with top of the
line vehicles capable of incredible speeds. So imagine one day when this sixty
eight year old man from New Zealand walks into your race…
And he’s trying to do it with this vehicle…
Oh wait, sorry, I meant this motorcycle…
A 1920 Indian Scout, a motorcycle that was never intended to
go faster than 30 miles per hour, and Burt was trying to top 200 miles per hour
with it. To top it all off, the man was bats**t crazy, removing entire segments
and safety features of his bike in favor of smaller, lighter components. Things
like shocks, brakes, and forks were removed or weakened to the point of
breaking, and Munro didn’t have a single safety feature necessary for the flats
such as a parachute or fire extinguisher. He didn’t do this overnight, in fact
he spent 47 years of his life modifying his motorcycle for the event, getting
into countless crashes and accidents along the way while perfecting his craft.
How was he allowed to race? Well, he was intensely lovable
and friendly, making him a truly unique character in record-setting history,
and he just sort of charmed his way into racing. It was also a different world back
then, an America that was willing to take chances and explored the idea of
thinking outside the box. If Burt Munro had shown up today with his motorcycle
he would have gotten his ass kicked right out of the race It’s an incredibly
interesting story about an incredibly interesting man set in an incredibly
interesting time in America, and making his long journey into an accurate and
faithful adaptation is a great idea that pays off big time.
The big draw of the film is seeing Anthony Hopkins act the
hell out of his role. It got to the point where friends and family of Munro
said that even though Hopkins didn’t look a thing like Munro they still thought
it was him reincarnated, the same kind of praise that was given to George C
Scott for his portrayal of General Patton. I’ve always been a huge fan of
Anthony Hopkins (who isn’t these days?), but I’ve noticed that lately he hasn’t
really gotten many roles that require him to be anything but Anthony Hopkins.
So imagine my delight when I see Hopkins in a role so utterly different and
unique that you forget that it’s Hopkins at several points.
The direction and story telling elements of the film are
basic, but solid, offering a lot of interesting simple moments in an already
interesting trek across the US by a foreigner. It’s a funny story even without
the stuff that happens to the poor man along the way. Stories like this don’t
need a lot of padding, so the writing and direction are perfectly what they
need to be for the audience to get emotionally attached to the character of
Burt Munro. It may seem like a simple film, but the neat story of Burt Munro
and the solid writing never let the story and film feel like they are lagging
before they get to the events at Bonneville.
Something else I really liked about movie was the way they
portrayed the other American racers once he got to Bonneville. Most adaptations
of a sports film would have them be a bunch of dicks as soon an Burt showed up,
taunting him with things like “Hey old man, you expect to win this race with that thing?” followed by a round of
dickish high fives and guffaws at the expense of the old man. It’s the easy way
to get the audience to root even more for the protagonist, make him the
underdog against a bunch of jerks like Daniel-san in The Karate Kid. It’s
not even bad film-making to pull this kind of trick, it’s cheap and
manipulative yes, but it’s effective as well because it strengthens that
emotional connection we have with the character.
As much as I loved Steven Spielberg I’ll be the first to
admit that he really over-relied on this tactic during his films. How do we
make Chief Brody more likable in Jaws? Make him the lone dissenting
voice amid a sea of dickish politicians. How do we make the characters in E.T.
more relatable to the audience? Make the government agents trying to find him
(agents who are doing this for national security mind you) unnecessarily cruel
and cold. Yeah, Minority Report is really good, but how can we make the
audience side with Tom Cruise even more? Make the agent tailing him a shallow
and unlikeable career-hungry asshole instead of taking the time to create a well
developed character.
Not the case in World’s Fastest Indian however. Once
Munro finally gets all the way to the Bonneville Flats the film goes out of its
way to talk about how great the other racers were to him, going out of their
way to get around regulations so he could drive, setting him up with living
arrangements (he had been living out of his car until that point), and
generally doing everything they could do get Burt entered into the events. The
film doesn’t resort to tropes in order to establish a stronger connection, and
the movie comes out stronger for it.
The World’s Fastest Indian is a great example of a
film that can go miles just by following incredible events that happened in
real life without resorting to clichés. The surprisingly awesome Disney sports
film Miracle followed this same blueprint and as I just mentioned, it
came out surprisingly awesome. Sometimes real life truly is stranger and more
magnificent than fiction, and this film does a great job of reminding the
audience of the wonderful things that can be accomplished if you just stop
being so afraid of taking risks like Burt Munro.
9 out of 10
I like directing my readers to
other works they may enjoy, and for a great listen give the gentlemen on the
podcast Reel Junkies a shot. A great and funny poscast featuring knowledgeable
insight into film.
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