El amo del viento

I saw this film on a plane - I know, I know, the worst place to see any kind of film - and thought I would just fall asleep as I didn't expect it to catch my interest enough to put up with the bad audio and small screens. In any case I dislike feel-good movies, and all the Kiwi-innovator stuff makes me cringe, Kiwis don't have the monopoly on being resourceful. And I'd never heard of Burt Munro. So I was surprised to find within a few minutes I was entranced.

Anthony Hopkins has made a brilliant job of the role, his accent wasn't too bad, and I loved the way he said "Invercarrrrrrgill". Hopkins' talent really shone - without him saying a word or changing his expression, you just knew how Burt felt when confronted by an apparently insurmountable obstacle (I won't spoil it) and his placid acceptance of the inevitable falls, tumbles and injuries told you that for Burt these were a fact of life. The other cast were also flawless, for me there wasn't a weak point in any of the acting. The humour was delivered in the main by Hopkins and with the lightest possible touch. The cinematography was beautiful and conveyed the journey from long quiet light of Munro's idealism in Invercargill, murky 'orribleness of the necessary evil of passing through LA and laying your dream on the line in the harsh open glare of Utah.

Hopkins has done a few of these slightly-disreputable, love-em-when-you-get-to-know-em characters but this is the best. And I'm not a motorcycle fan, and no Kiwi-made-good fan, but I will confess to a tear (almost) at the end when the text came up about Burt's unbeaten record.

If you watch this film at home you won't want to be disturbed by other people talking - you'll want to catch every word, every nuance.

Seeing the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" reminded me why I go see movies. I average about one every two weeks, and this was one of those rare movies that actually made me feel *happy* afterward.

The main character, New Zealander Bill Munroe as played by Anthony Hopkins, is a true man's man. He has spent his entire adult life tinkering with his streamlined motorcycle, a 1920 Indian (hence the title.) Now in his 60's in the year 1963, he wants to realize his life's dream of taking it halfway around the world to the Bonneville Salt Flats Test Track in Utah, the only place where he can find out how fast it will actually go.

The movie pulls off two often-used themes, The Long Journey and Overcoming Adversity, without a hint of phoniness or melodrama. The Long Journey from New Zealand to Utah takes up most of the movie, with Munroe scrounging up travel money, working off part of his passage on a dilapidated freighter, and the long, event-filled drive from the California coast to Utah in an old used car. Overcoming Adversity is portrayed in two ways: by Munroe's awesome mechanical genius as shown by his ability to fashion spare parts out of almost anything and to improvise a la MacGyver, and in his charm and likability when confronted with more human obstacles. Indeed, one of the movie's chief strengths was the character's ability to make friends easily under any situation, with a cast of colorful supporting characters who wonderfully complemented Hopkins' acting.

After finally reaching the test track, the movie's focus shifts from the acting to the cinematography and drama. The dozens of colorful cars, motorcycles, and drivers' outfits contrast strikingly with the blinding white of the salt flats and the mountainous backdrop. And when Munroe finally gets the chance to make his test run, two questions come to mind. How fast can he go? More importantly, will the 64-year-old man and the 43-year-old patched-up bike hold together under the strain?

After seeing the movie and while still in my euphoric state, my skeptical mind wondered how much of it was actually true. I did a little research, and the portrayal of this amazing man seems to be true enough. Go see this movie; if you do, you'll leave the theater feeling good, and perhaps even a little inspired.

This was an interesting story of an older, poor guy traveling all the wayfrom New Zealand to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to try to set a world speed record on his motorcycle. With Anthony Hopkins playing that man, "Burt Munro," you know it's not some hokey little B-film. It's also based on real-life character who did this back in 1969.

This film reminded me of "The Straight Story," starring Richard Farnsworth. That dealt with an old man taking a long tractor ride across the state of Iowa to see his dying brother. It featured a bunch of nice characters he met along his journey. This is much the same as we witness Munro's encounters with a variety of people in the United States. Like "The Straight Story," all the people are good people and help our man. That's nice to see.

Once he finally gets to the Salt Flats, however, his problems are far from over as he is unable to meet any of the minimum safety standards. It appears he made his trip for nothing, but, you'll see what happens if you view this movie.

New Zealanders say Hopkins did them proud, too, and they would know if he did a good job or not playing a man from their area of the world, whether he sounded and acted realistically. They say he did.

I enjoyed the first 35 minutes of this story the most. Maybe because that's the most innocent part of the film and features a young boy who looks up to Burt and encourages him when few others are willing to do so.

It's when Munro reaches America where the "nice, clean family film" goes south a bit. He hooks up with transvestites, one-night stands, profanes here and there and the PC angle gets a little overplayed. However, despite making America look a little too weird, everything is done is a tasteful way and it still was a wonderful story. It has to be an inspiration for older folks who might think life's challenges are over once they hit a certain age. Not so, as Mr. Munro shows us in this inspiring, well-photographed film.

This certainly is quite an unknown movie for one which has such a famous actor in the starring role. It's well worth your time, though, to check out.

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. .

Anthony Hopkins is simply astounding. The man can disappear inside of characters so diverse and capture you so completely, that you have to wonder if his well of talent has a bottom.

This film is at turns charming, bawdy, fascinating, riveting, nerve wracking, hilarious, heartwarming and heartbreaking. As Burt Munro -- an aging New Zealand man losing his hearing, short on money, living in a shed surrounded by weeds, considered a lovable if eccentric oddball by all who know him except one small boy, and obsessed with making a 45 year old motorcycle capable of breaking the land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats -- Hopkins takes us along for the ride every minute of this movie. The fact that this film is based on the true story of Burt Munro makes it all the more captivating, but a lesser actor than Hopkins might very well have lost us along the way. It is no wonder that the children of the real-life Burt Munro were moved to tears by Hopkins' portrayal.

There's a clever ongoing bit about the taste of Burt's hot tea, and you will also wonder a bit about how his lemonade might taste. Every scene is a jewel in this movie, and the cumulative effect proves that extraordinary films do not have to cost bazillions of dollars and take two years of computer-generated special effects to WOW their audience.

Burt is challenged by every imaginable obstacle standing between him and his speed dream: his failing heart may give out any minute, the journey around the world to transport the 1920 Indian motorcycle to the USA seems insurmountable, he has no machine shop or whiz-bang tools and equipment to work his engineering miracles, etc. What he DOES have is an indomitable spirit that will never, ever stop trying. Whether he's battling young ruffians who diss his ancient motorcycle or banking, bureaucrats and red tape, he is a wrinkled but worthy warrior.

The supporting cast is as beautiful and bizarre as it gets, and the audience becomes inordinately fond and just about every one of them except for a nasty foreign cabdriver (Carlos Lacamara), but hey, somebody had to be disliked. Great actors in small roles abound, including Diane Ladd as Ada, a frontier gal that's been lonely a while, Saginaw Grant as Jake, an "Indian" with a really distasteful solution to Burt's prostate problems, and Paul Rodriguez as Fernando, a human and humane used car salesman. Perhaps the best scene -- and heart -- stealer is Chris Williams as Tina, a cross-dressing front desk night clerk at a fleabag hooker hotel. You gotta love him. Or her, as the case may be. Stellar performance, and Hopkins' Burt treats Tina with such dignity it defines friendship.

Don't miss this fine, fine film. And if there is justice in the boffo box office world, The World's Fastest Indian will be a true Oscar contender in 2006.