Indian - La grande sfida

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.

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!!

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. .

A true story with a nice mix of emotion and motorcycles.

At a sneak preview of this movie in Burt Munro 's hometown - Invercargill, I noticed at the end that many of the men had moist eyes -not that the film is weepy or sycophantic in any way - it's simply inspirational.

The hero/underdog here is a social misfit, a self-confessed dirty old man but a lovable one. He loves the ladies and he loves speeding on his vintage Indian Scout "modified somewhat" along the open beach of Invercargill in Southern New Zealand. Beach bike racers still contest the Burt Munro Trophy on Oreti beach.

Burt's 1967 record at Bonneville still stands.

Anthony Hopkins manages the problematic Kiwi accent well to deliver a touching, funny and realistic depiction of Burt in his quest to be the fastest thing on two wheels. Sir Anthony said that it's the best thing he's ever done and it's hard to disagree based on his laconic and lovable portrayal.

Outstanding cameos by the likes of Annie Whittle and Diane Ladd simply add depth and verisimilitude to the film. Tim Shadbolt, well he definitely acted in the film...

Complete and convincing performances that warm the heart and show true humanity shining through.

The cinematography is clear and precise, the action scenes are mercifully free of special effects and Burt's kiwi innovation and guile win the day.

A new classic from Roger Donaldson.

I must admit, on this particular day I was dragged to the cinema with no prior knowledge of the characters, plot and had no awareness of the historical basis upon which the film is based. After a minute or so, I realized my partner (a fairly new motorcycle rider himself, making me a motorcycle widow of course) had lured me into a film about motorbikes. I rolled my eyes at him, yawned and prepared for the worst ...

What I got instead was the best film I've seen for quite some time.

Anthony Hopkins totally blew me away. His accent was really very strong (it should be noted that the Invercargil accent is pretty distinct from the rest of the South Island of NZ) and he managed to maintain the audience's interest though some pretty dialogue-heavy scenes. All of the supporting characters did a brilliant job defining a diverse physical and emotional landscape for the protagonist. The cinematography was economical and meaningful and assisted the humorous moments beautifully. The story unfolded very nicely and - thanks to some great editing - the small moments of tension were plentiful and kept the story moving along nicely.

With all the cynicism and politics in contemporary cinema, it is so refreshing to see a film that is very pure, that speaks volumes about kindness and passion and friendship without saying anything at all. This film didn't try to make any big statements, there were no lengthy diatribes about 'acceptance' and 'tolerance', and I loved that.

I left the cinema with a huge grin on my face. I'm so glad I was dragged along for the ride.