Number 326 on the top 1000 films of all time is the New Zealand biographical drama: 'The World's Fastest Indian.'
Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins) is an ageing speed bike racer from New Zealand. He travels tot he US to fulfill a lifelong dream: to race his bike on the Bonneville salt flats in Utah.
By all accounts, this is a film that wouldn't interest me. I know that I should review these films with an open mind, but motor bike racing has never been something that interested me. I thought this would be a film that would only appeal to other bike racers, but I was wrong. It was an incredibly watchable film.
And a lot of that is down to Anthony Hopkins' portrayal as Burt Munro. Munro is such a likable character that it's difficult not to root for him. He is charming, jovial and personable. To gain passage to the US, he works as a chef on a small ship. Upon reaching the US, he encounters many obstacles with the local bureaucracy, but he always manages to talk his way out of trouble. He even convinces traffic cops to let him go without a ticket.
He also quickly befriends people who help him on his journey whether this is a transvestite motel clerk or a second-hand car salesman. This pays dividends when the jobsworth racing officials deny him the opportunity to race because he hasn't pre-registered. But the other racers rally around him and he is eventually allowed to race where he goes onto break the land speed record.
The only thing I found weird was how Hopkins didn't speak with a Kiwi accent. Considering this is a New Zeland production that's set in New Zealand and constantly has Munro referencing he is from New Zealand, it was a really bizarre choice. Surely this was some weird director decision as an actor of Hopkins' calibre must be capable of doing a convincing Kiwi accent.
This was an entertaining film. It could have been a tedious adventure that would only appeal to a small audience, but instead it was a heart-warming tale about an old man fulfilling his lifelong dream.
This was a charming film. I imagine Hopkins could have earned a lot more with a more up market piece. The fact that he opted for this little film and put so much work into it, is quite heart warming.
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