The World’s Fastest Indian
I'm not a motorcycle enthusiast because when I motor I like to motor fast and at my age every day is too precious to be thrown away in a burst of speed. In fact I'm determined to drive with dignity. It's a promise I made to myself last year after I hit 148 mph while testing a Porsche on an empty country road. That said, I look forward to seeing a new movie about a motorcyclist: "The World's Fastest Indian." It's based on the true story of Burt Munro, who set the world's land-speed record in 1967 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, and stars the wonderful British actor Anthony Hopkins.
The New York Times Movie Review referred to it as "Rocky" for seniors (but is more articulate), crossed with David Lynch's 'Straight Story,' with a sugar glaze." Burt is a New Zealander in his late 60's and suffers from all sorts of ageing problems though that doesn't stop him from leaping in and out of bed with middle-age females and racing his 1920 Indian Twin Scout motorcycle. His lifelong dream is to go record-breaking at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He scrapes up the money and while traveling across America meets a cross-section of friendly folk including a drag queen, a used car salesman, a soldier on leave from Vietnam and, believe it or not, a wise old American Indian.
Burt runs into some supposedly insurmountable obstacles when he arrives at the Salt Flats but a friendly biker helps him out. Stephen Holden, the reviewer, had this to say about the film's ending. "The climactic scene, in which he guns his vehicle to the astounding speed of 201 miles an hour while his fellow racers watch with skepticism that turns to awe and then to euphoria, is the same winner's sequence we've seen a hundred times before." Maybe, but that won't keep me away when The World's Fastest Indian opens at my local cinema. Photo copyright Raoul Butler/Magnolia Pictures.
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