Evel Knievel

I caught this "made for TV movie" Sunday, 8/1/04. George Eads was GREAT in it.

The movie centered on Evel Knievel's life and how he rose from working in the mines to becoming America's #1 daredevil, at least on a motorcycle.

The movie covered his smaller jumps as well as the grand and near impossible ones. The Ceasar's Palace Fountain jump was portrayed very graphically with what I'm guessing was actually footage of the real crash combined with shot footage for the film. You could almost feel Evel's bones breaking when he flew over the handlebars and you could see the emotion in Linda's eyes when the doctors told her that he may never come out of his coma and if he did he would never walk again, much less ride. As we know, he proved them wrong and went on to more daring jumps, such as the attempt at Snake River Canyon.

I wish they had continued with the story, but I guess two-hours was long enough to get the point across. It was nice to see the footnotes at the end telling of Evel's 276 successful jumps and noting that his son, Robbie Knievel is the only person to ever successfully complete the jump over the fountain at Ceasear's Palace in Las Vegas.

Looked forward to seeing this movie, and thought the casting was a good opportunity to make a good Knievel movie. George Eads seemed he could put in a good performance as Evel, and you can't take your eyes off Jamie Pressley in every scene she's in. Add Beau Bridges and Lance Henriksen, and it sounds like the makings of a good biography that has never been properly made. Not sure what went wrong here, but there were so many odd mistakes in the shooting, and what seem to be unnecessary changes to historical details that create distractions in watching the movie, and make the overall product seen cheap and "hammy". I tried to stay entertained, but the movie does not have factual credibility and lacks any production polish, it makes it hard to watch. The story flows in a choppy manner, including scenes that detail odd perspectives of his life that go nowhere, and then skips chunks of events and even ends abruptly. The product lacks a theme or specific point. Not an offensive movie, nor painful to watch, but I am more convinced after this movie that a quality movie about the legendary figure of Evel Knievel has yet to be made. Upon discovering this movie (it was 5 or 6 years old by the time I saw it) was a made-for-TV movie on TNT or some other station, the production limitations are obvious, and I am impressed the movie was even as good as it was.

No pun intended there - I didn't come up with the wordplay anyway. Actually this movie did not come up with the character. Apart from real life, there are other outings. Which unfortunately I have not seen. And I would not call myself an expert in all things Evel (another pun?).

Still this is a decent movie in my book. Acting is fine, stunts seem insane (as they must have seemed back in the day too) and Jaime Pressly looks a bit like Margot Robbie in this (or maybe it's just me). Interesting movie to say the least, though it may not work as good for those who know more about what went down (and up, ok yes pun intended) back in the day ...

I wonder if the real Evel had anything to do with this? Not only was it nothing like what really happened, the movie also used many props that just did not exist! Like the Ceasars Palace jump in '68, Evel is wearing a full-face style of helmet that didn't even exist then! And the music in the background that was playing..Call Me the Breeze, by Lynrd Skynrd was a 1974 song! Was this movie supposed to appeal to todays kids only?

Because if it was, then these important facts don't matter!

Just like the battery flashlights in the 1997 movie Titanic! At least the always scrumptious Jamie Pressley was in it and looking fine!

I am sorry, but maybe I am being a stickler, but in the first 15 minutes of this disaster of a film, in 1950, little Evel was stealing hubcaps off a 1955 Chrysler product car, possibly a DeSoto and chased by a policeman driving a 1958 Ford. Two different car year mistakes in the first scene made me wonder if anyone on this film even checked on these things. The second scene moves forward in time to 1958, where Evel is seen drinking beer out of aluminum cans with built in pop-tops! Duh! In 1958, and I was 8 at the time, you needed a can opener (church key) to drink out of cans, and the cans were steel. When I saw the aluminum can, I turned the channel because I knew if I DID continue watching, the movie would have Evel actually making a successful crossing of the Snake River in his rocket powered motorcycle. To anyone out there that wasn't around then or didn't see it live on TV, he didn't make it across. The chute to help him stop after landing was deployed as soon as the rocket cycle was ignited causing it to float to a landing on the same side of the river that it took off from. I did not watch after the first 15 minutes, so I don't know if they showed Evel actually completing the jump across the river.