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Nice guy finishes first
In 1955 ads for The Glass Slipper featured Leslie Caron with the tagline, "You fell in love with this girl before. Her name was Lili." They could do something similar with The World's Fastest Indian: "You fell in love with this man before. His name was Hannibal Lecter." Anthony Hopkins plays another memorably lovable lunatic—but not a villain: Burt Munro, an eccentric New Zealander who wanted to ride his motorcycle at Utah 's Bonneville Salt Flats . It had been his dream for 25 years and he finally achieved it in the 1960s, in his 60s, setting a new land speed record. Australia-born filmmaker Roger Donaldson, whose resume includes Cocktail, Dante's Peak and No Way Out, returns to his original part of the world, at least for the first section of The World's Fastest Indian. Burt is beloved by almost everyone in his town, especially Fran (Annie Whittle), the bank employee he dates, and Tom (Aaron Murphy), the boy next door whose parents don't appreciate being awakened by Burt gunning his engine at dawn. Tom's parents try to keep their son from spending too much time with the old loon, who pees on his lemon tree daily. It's 1963 and Burt may be about to realize his dream of taking his bike to Bonneville to "find out how fast she will go." The bike is a 1920 Scout (the Indian of the title) he's carefully rebuilt, maintained and suped up. To stretch a movie, even a leisurely one like this, over two hours there have to be setbacks, like an angina attack that makes his doctor tell Burt to "Take it easy....I think your motorcycling days are over." "The hell they are!" Burt responds. Finally reaching the States, Burt charms a whole new group of people, including used car salesman Fernando (Paul Rodriguez), transvestite motel clerk Tina Washington (Chris Williams); Rusty (Patrick Flueger), a young airman on leave from Vietnam where he sprays Agent Orange, who thinks the war will be over in six months; and Ada (Diane Ladd, receiving second billing for a six-minute sequence), a woman who has the parts Burt needs when his bike is damaged. Tina, who doesn't have the same parts as Ada , is one of the mild culture shocks Burt takes in stride. When he says, "I'm not a girl, I'm a boy," Burt replies, "I thought there was something a little odd about you, but you're still a sweetheart." At Bonneville there's another setback: Burt didn't know he was supposed to register months in advance for the speed trials and the hard-assed judges won't make an exception for him: "Rules are rules." They tell him he's too old and his bike is unsafe. With the help of fellow racer Jim Moffet (Christopher Lawford), another new best friend, he's given a chance to ride unofficially; and one thing leads to another. An odd note: Burt talks a lot about his twin brother who died when they were children. Nearly a century before " Sesame Street " their parents named the boys Burt and Ernie! Assuming that everyone knows the Burt Munro story, Donaldson doesn't try to work up much suspense—just to give you a smooth, entertaining ride to the well-documented outcome and to preach, in Burt's words, "If you don't follow through on your dreams you might as well be a vegetable." If Burt's not the salt of the earth, he's at least the salt of the salt flats. The World's Fastest Indian should be AARP's movie of the year, if not the decade. Steve Warren is a local actor and film reviewer. His reviews can also be seen weekly in the Sunday Paper. |
The World's Fastest Indian
Directed by: Roger Donaldson 
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