World's Fastest Indian

I love movies based on true stories. Stand and Deliver, October Sky and several others come to mind. A great quirky true-story movie I loved was The Dish, about a radio dish in Australia that was the only one that could be used to monitor the NASA moon mission.

The World's Fastest Indian is based on a true story, it's quirky, and takes place (partly) in New Zealand. So it has alot of thing going for it. But it also stars Anthony Hopkins, which could make up for alot of other flaws (if there were any). It's a great "underdog triumphs over all" story- even the story about the making of the movie. Turns out the director is a New Zealander who has been trying to make this movie for years. He finally did it, and it's worth the wait.

The gist of the story is Burt Munru, a motorcycle fanatic, works on perfecting his bike for 25 years so he can race it on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. He saves up the money and makes the voyage by sea to Long Beach, buys a car & drives from Los Angeles to the Salt Flats. He meets some really colorful characters along the way. What's great is no matter how different they are from him, everyone is good natured and want to help Burt make his way to his race.

When he finally arrives, he's told he can't race because he didn't pre-register. All that way for nothing? Well you have to watch the movie to see what happens.

Watch the ending credits for some facts about Burt (like the end of Stand and Deliver). And definitely watch the Extras - not the "making of", but the real-life footage of Burt. What a character!