The World’s Fastest Indian (2005)

• Year: 2005
• Released: 24 Mar 2006
• Country: New Zealand, Japan, United States
• Adwords: 11 wins & 6 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412080/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_worlds_fastest_indian
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-worlds-fastest-indian
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport
• Runtime: 127 min
• Writer: Roger Donaldson
• Director: Roger Donaldson
• Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Diane Ladd, Iain Rea
• Keywords: 1960s, motorcycle, new zealand, utah, motor sport,

	7.8/10
	68/100

The World’s Fastest Indian Storyline

For twenty-five years in Invercargill, New Zealand, Burt Munro (1899-1978) has been working on increasing the speed of his motorcycle, a 1920 Indian. He dreams of taking it to the Bonneville Salt Flats to see how fast it will go. By the early 1960s, heart disease threatens his life, so he mortgages his house and takes a boat to Los Angeles, buys an old car, builds a makeshift trailer, gets the Indian through customs, and heads for Utah. Along the way, people he meets are charmed by his open, direct friendliness. If he makes it to Bonneville, will they let an old guy on bthe flats with makeshift tires, no brakes, and no chute? And will the Indian actually respond?

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Tastes like Titanium

Greetings again from the darkness. Writer/Director Roger Donaldson has been very prolific in his Hollywood career creating mostly slick, ho-hum projects such as “The Recruit”, “Thirteen Days”, “Dante’s Peak” and “Cocktail”. Although there is a touch of sap in this one, Donaldson turns on the charm for the fascinating tale of Burt Munro, the New Zealander who shocked the world with his speed records in the 1960’s.

Playing a bit like a motorized “Hidalgo”, the film captures your heart and imagination thanks in large part to the amazing journey of this spirited man and the terrific performance of Sir Anthony Hopkins. Making his way half way around the world with almost no money to his name, Munro realizes a life long dream of running his hand-built 1920 Indian “motor-sickle” at the Salt Flats of Bonneville in Utah. his journey and openness introduce him to so many people along the way. His warm heart and courage just will these folks to help him out. Everyone wants ol’ Burt to make it.

While you may think to yourself this is just a light-hearted Hollywood feel-good film, just remember the man and the story are real. Donaldson and Hopkins worked together over 20 years ago in “The Bounty” and have another very interesting project under way now with “Papa” – a biopic on Ernest Hemingway. Three supporting performances really stand out: Diane Ladd, (comedian) Paul Rodriguez and Christopher Lawford (Peter’s son) as Jim Moffit. Donaldson, in a nice touch, also spreads in a few appearances of the guys from the high speed world.

This is one you can take the family to and almost everyone will enjoy the story, journey and spirit of Burt Munro. And believe me when I say, you will never look at Lemon trees the same again!!

A decent tribute

Invercargill, New Zealand, is noted for being the country’s southernmost city and for having the least hours of sunshine and the most number of rain days of any NZ large town. It is also famous for being the home town of a gritty old codger called Burt Munroe who set a number of world motor cycle speed records (one of which still stands) in the 1960s at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, riding a 1920 Indian Scout motor cycle.

Roger Donaldson, one of the midwives to the renaissance of the Kiwi film industry in the 1980s (“Sleeping Dogs”, “Smash Palace”) and latterly Hollywood director (“Thirteen Days”), made “Offerings to the God of Speed” a documentary on Burt in 1972, when he was still alive. This dramatization of the same story – little man triumphs though sheer grit and determination – is a triumph for his star. Anthony Hopkins is good at quirky curmudgeons but here he manages to exude a little homespun charm as well. His Burt has the happy knack of getting people to help him rather than shaft him. Officialdom melts at his approach and he is even attractive to the ladies, as Burt would have put it. It’s Tony Hopkin’s film and he carries it off in fine style. I’m not sure about the accent which is more northern British than southern NZ but it hardly matters as the Americans in the film can scarcely understand it anyway.

The rest of the cast were all adequate and Aaron Murphy as Tom the kid from next door was actually able to steal some scenes. I also noticed an old acquaintance in a minor role as Frank the bike club president – Tim Shadbolt, student radical of the late 60s and now mayor of Invercargill. Burt had no money but he did get community support at various times, so Invercargillians can take some pride in his achievements.

Which brings me to what I think is the hole in this account. The Indian motorcycle, which was a light machine used for dispatch and scout work in World War One, had a top speed, according to the makers, of 57 mph. It had a V-2 cylinder block design and a decent capacity of just under 1000cc. Burt was a backyard mechanic who constantly tinkered with it, even casting his own pistons, which blew with monotonous regularity. Somehow he got the thing to exceed 200mph. No doubt the streamlining helped, but he must have modified the original design radically. Donaldson presents this without any explanation. Maybe Burt wouldn’t tell him, or maybe Donaldson thought too much tech stuff would put the punters off. It wouldn’t have taken much to explain it.

As others have said, this is very much a “feel-good” movie and I think, as an ex-resident of NZ, evocative of some of the more admirable aspects of the NZ character – the optimism, the friendliness, the capacity for improvisation and the willingness to rise to a challenge, and even occasionally to take risks. Burt had a lot in common with those pioneer settlers from Scotland who arrived in Southland 100 years earlier and founded Invercargill, a place the Maori sensibly regarded as a trifle too chilly to actually live in (though they visited for the oysters and muttonbirds). But he also had some home-grown attributes as well. .

For a little film, it’s quite engaging

This is not the sort of film you’d expect from Anthony Hopkins. First, the aging British actors plays a New Zealander and second, he’s a fearless speed demon with his heavily modified motorcycle! This is about as far from REMAINS OF THE DAY or SILENCE OF THE LAMBS as you can get and it was nice to see Hopkins (who was pushing 70) try such an unusual role in an independent picture.

Despite the title, the movie is not about people from India or American Indians–or even people from Indiana or Indianapolis! The “Indian” in the title is a reference to the defunct Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Plant and its cycles of the first half of the twentieth century.

The story is a basically true story (with a few changes and omissions) of how New Zealander Burt Munro was able to get his heavily modified motorcycle to the Bonneville Salt Flats and set land speed records for a 1000cc motorcycle–even though by this point he was in his 60s.

The story unfolds very slowly–something that might annoy younger and action-oriented audiences. Instead of focusing just on the record-breaking attempt, much of the movie is a “road film”–as Hopkins comes to America and slowly makes his way to Utah. Along the way, he meets a lot of odd characters, though the oddest one is probably Munro himself! In many ways, its reminiscent of THE STRAIGHT STORY and other slice of life films–one where characters and their quirks are more the story than their actual deeds. As a result of the style, it almost feels as if you are a passenger on Munro’s journey as opposed to you seeing a movie.

By the way, like almost every bio-pic, this one twists the real story just a bit–consolidating some events, omitting many (Munro was a father and grandfather–while in the movie, he seems to be all alone) and intensifying the drama. For a brief recap of the real Munro story, try www.indianmotorbikes.com/features/munro/munro.htm .