CNS Movie Review: The World's Fastest Indian

The World's Fastest Indian

By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- No, it's not what you think. Though a Native American character does, in fact, make an appearance midway through, "The World's Fastest Indian" (Magnolia) refers to a 1920s vintage Indian Twin Scout motorbike.

For you see, the movie is about real-life race car driver Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins), a sixtysomething New Zealander who against all odds sets off for the United States to compete in the races at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats.

When the film begins, Burt (who died in 1978) lives in the small town of Invercargill, where he spends most of his time tinkering with his rickety motorbike, much to the annoyance of his usually indulgent, if exasperated, neighbors. Their young son, Tom (Aaron Murphy), is enamored of the old man and spends every free moment helping Burt in his cinder-block shed where the eccentric has scrawled "Offerings to the God of Speed" in chalk. (Burt also urinates on his lemon tree, and sets fire to his lawn rather than mow it!)

Determined to fulfill his dream, despite the skepticism of the townspeople -- his neighbors, the woman with whom he's involved, and the tough bikers who deride him -- not to mention a warning that his biking days are over after a serious angina attack, the irrepressible Burt packs up his bike and heads for the States, earning his passage on a small freighter by working as a cook.

Once he gets to California, he would seem to be naive prey for con artists and other unscrupulous characters, but apart from being bilked out of $10 by a flower seller, his openhearted goodness disarms everyone he meets, with each ultimately becoming his friend, from the transvestite (Chris Williams) who works as the receptionist at the front desk of his questionable motel, the used-car salesman (Paul Rodriguez) who sells him a car so he can make his journey to Utah, an American Indian who gives him shelter, and a free-spirited widow (Diane Ladd) who helps repair his car along the way (and invites him to share her bed).

Upon reaching his destination, it looks like he'll be thwarted by bureaucracy (he didn't know he had to register beforehand), but you know his tenacity and openhearted geniality will win the day, and he finds himself a sympathetic ally in fellow driver Jim Moffat (Chris Lawford).

Even as much of this smacks as too-good-to-be-true -- even the tough bikers back home turn out to be good Joes -- the result is heartwarming, and we'll allow the dramatic license.

Writer-producer-director Roger Donaldson, who made a TV documentary about Munro in the 1970s and wanted to make this feature-length film for years, has gotten out of Anthony Hopkins one of his very best screen performances, so natural it hardly seems he's acting, with an authentic-sounding New Zealand accent to boot. The photography (so important in what is essentially a road picture) and the exciting racing sequences further add to the movie's appeal.

Despite the disheartening revelation that Burt does not believe in God ("When you're dead, you're dead," he asserts), the inspiring themes of perseverance and defying the odds, and Burt's unaffected embrace of humanity, balance a sometimes lumbering pace and pat plot contrivances.

The film contains scattered profanity, a permissive view of premarital sex, a transvestite character, brief solicitation by a prostitute, drug use and some innuendo. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

END

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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