The World’s Fastest Indian

2005
Magnolia Pictures
Directed, Written & Produced by Roger Donaldson
Based on the documentary: “Offerings To The God of Speed”

Sir Anthony Hopkins has been around for so long that I think it’s easy to forget just how really good he is as an actor. Most people only became Anthony Hopkins fans when they saw his mesmerizing, frightening performance as Hannibal Lector in “Silence of the Lambs” back in 1991. But I enjoyed his performances and acting style in earlier movies such as “The Elephant Man” “The Bounty””Magic” and what I think is the most quotable movie of all time: “The Lion In Winter” He has a real gift for disappearing into his characters and a great example of this gift is the biopic THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN.

It’s 1967 and Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins) is something of the local eccentric in the New Zealand town of Invercargill. He’s in his late 60’s, lives in a workshop and is oblivious to the fact that his grass is almost up to his knees despite pleading from his neighbor to do something about it. He’s more interested in working on his 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle which he’s spent the better part of twenty-five years modifying. Burt may be eccentric but he’s also a minor national hero because of his motorcycle racing. He’s enough of a hero that the town gets together and throws him a fundraising party to send Burt to America. It’s always been a dream of Burt to run his beloved Indian during Speed Week at The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. And so he just goes ahead and heads off halfway around the world, despite his bad heart for which he takes nitroglycerine pills. He leaves his workshop/home in the care of his good friend 10 year old Tom (Aaron Murphy) and works as a cook on a tramp steamer for passage for him and his motorcycle to America. Once there he meets up with various characters that help him achieve his goal as he makes his way from California to Utah.

You may have noticed that I’ve been extremely lean in describing the plot of THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN and that’s because there really isn’t a whole lot of plot and not even a whole lot of suspense. Burt Munro was a real guy and he did run his motorcycle at Bonneville in 1967 and returned there several more times after that, setting speed records that still stand today. THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN isn’t the kind of movie you watch to figure out the intricacies of the plot and story. Instead you sit back and allow yourself to watch the adventures of this slightly daffy old coot that despite his age is still a speed freak. Burt is only interested in one thing: seeing how fast his beloved Indian will go and then tinkering with it to make it go even faster. I liked the early scenes set in Invercargill where it’s amusing to see that even though Burt exasperates and aggravates the hell out of his friends and neighbors they genuinely like him and care about him. Even the neighborhood motorcycle gang chips in and gives Burt ‘beer money’ while providing him with an honor escort to the dock.

Once in America the movie becomes a road picture with Burt meeting a variety of colorful characters, all who are charmed and intrigued by the old eccentric with the odd accent and his somewhat unusual goal. There’s the used car salesman (Paul Rodriguez) who sells him a car dirt cheap and lets him use the car lot workshop to build a trailer to transport his motorcycle. There’s the cross dressing night clerk (Chris Williams) of a hot sheet hotel who is utterly smitten with Burt. Ada (Diane Ladd) gives Burt a hand repairing his trailer when it throws a wheel and ends up giving him a whole lot more if you know what I mean nudge nudge wink wink. And once Burt finally gets to Bonneville he’s befriended by Jim Enz (Christopher Lawford) when it turns out that Burt never bothered to register his motorcycle. He figured he could just show up at Bonneville and run his bike. His bike is also far from meeting the safety codes and the officials think Burt is going to kill himself riding that thing. Jim Enz, along with several others (William Lucking, Walter Goggins) succeeds in changing the minds of the officials and they allow Burt to run his beloved Indian.

By now you should have tumbled that this isn’t a high-octane action movie. So if you demand explosions, gunfights, kung fu battles and car chases in your movies then this one you should steer clear of. This just isn’t that kind of movie. I think it really sets the tone of the entire movie in the early scenes when it’s shown that even though Tom’s parents think that Burt is a real pain in the ass as a neighbor they allow their son to hang out with the old guy and befriend him. Burt just has that effect on everybody he meets and by the end of the movie he had that same effect on me. Anthony Hopkins is just wonderful as Burt Munro. You may start out trying to find bits and pieces of other characters Hopkins has played here but you simply can’t. Burt Munro is a unique character indeed and I’m glad I got to spend time with him.

So should you see THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN? Sure. If you’re an Anthony Hopkins fan you’ll definitely want to check this one out. And if you’re in the mood for something that’s truly uplifting without being syrupy sweet or sappy then this fits the bill as well. It’s warm; it’s funny and delightful from start to finish. Highly recommended.

127 minutes
Rated PG-13

Thor

2012

Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures

 

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Produced by Kevin Feige

Screenplay by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz and Don Payne

Based on a story by J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protsevich

Based on The Marvel comic book THOR created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Larry Lieber

 

I like a lot of superheroes and love a whole bunch of others.  But ask me who my absolute favorite superhero is and without a doubt I’ll tell you its Thor.  I own a sizeable number of the issues written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby and all of the Walt Simonson issues and they’re among my most prized possessions when it comes to my comic book collection.

Why is Thor my favorite?  Where do I begin?  I love his grandeur, his majesty, his neo-Shakespearean way of speaking.  The fact that he’s not just a superhero: he’s The God of Thunder, wielding the enchanted war hammer Mjolnir.  He doesn’t just fight mortal supervillains such as The Absorbing Man and The Wrecker.  He also battles home grown immortal foes such as Frost Giants and Trolls.  His daddy is Odin, Monarch of Asgard who is so powerful that the gods of other pantheons speak softly around him.  Thor just doesn’t go on missions…he goes on quests to save the entire universe.  I can go on and on for days but you get the idea.  The comic book itself was a good mix of epic fantasy set in Asgard or other mythical realms and straight up superhero action when Thor would visit Earth to hang out with his mortal buddies in The Avengers or assume the humble human form of Dr. Donald Blake, greatest of healers.

I never dreamed that one day a THOR movie would be made but thanks to the quantum leap in movie making and technology, movies that once were considered unfilmable are now being made on a regular basis.  And I couldn’t be happier.  I’ve lived long enough to see a “Speed Racer” movie that blew my mind to splinters and now THOR.  If somebody gets around to “Doom Patrol” and “Challengers of The Unknown” as good as those two I can die a happy man.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is the greatest warrior in Asgard, home to a race of humanoids whose technology has given them abilities akin to that of gods.  In fact, they actually were worshipped as gods on Earth ages ago but after a war with The Frost Giants of Jotunheim, The Asgardians withdrew from Earth.  Thor himself is about to ascend the throne and take the place of All Father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) as King of Asgard.  But that’s before Frost Giants invade, seeking to reclaim their greatest weapon, The Casket of Ancient Winters.

Defying Odin’s command, Thor invades Jotunheim along with his brother, The God of Mischief, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) childhood crush and warrior maid Sif (Jaimie Alexander) and The Warriors Three: Volstagg The Voluminous (Ray Stevenson) Fandral The Dashing (Joshua Dallas) and Hogun The Grim (Tadanobu Asano).  After the furious battle that takes place, war between The Frost Giants and The Asgardians is renewed, breaking the long peace Odin worked so hard for.  Enraged, Odin casts Thor out of Asgard, stripping him of his god-like powers and sending him to Earth.  Odin also throws Mjolnir to Earth where it lands in the New Mexico desert with this enchantment: “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, will possess the power of Thor”

The hammer attracts the attention of the locals, who try to lift it up in a redneck version of the drawing of Excalibur to no avail.  The hammer simply cannot be lifted.  It also attracts the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. who erects a compound around the hammer.  Also interested in the hammer is astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) her assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings) and her mentor Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard)  Jane accidentally hits Thor with her truck but that’s okay as he apparently has the answers she needs about her current research which involves wormholes.  In a really nice scene, Thor explains in an off-handed manner that his people know all about wormholes and how to use them to travel between The Nine Realms.  They don’t call their own personal wormhole a wormhole, though.  They call it Bifrost, The Rainbow Bridge and it’s the means by which The Asgardians travel though The Nine Realms.  Thor strikes a bargain with Jane: if she’ll help him get back Mjolnir, he’ll tell her what she needs to know to complete her research.  However, there are complications in this bargain.  Otherwise we wouldn’t have a movie.

THOR bounces back and forth between the doings on Earth with Thor and his new found mortal allies and the intrigue on Asgard.  Odin has fallen into the sacred Odin Sleep to renew his power and that gives Loki the opportunity to step in and take control of Asgard.  The Warriors Three, along with Sif journey to Earth to help restore Thor to his rightful power and in the background, The Frost Giants plot with a secret traitor to destroy Asgard once and for all…

Let me say right up front that you’re not going to get a bad word about THOR outta me.  I absolutely loved this movie from start to finish and there ain’t a lot of movies these days I can say that about.  I loved Chris Hemsworth’s portrayal of Thor.  Sure, he’s an arrogant ass but he’s a likeable arrogant ass.  And he’s smart enough to realize during his time on Earth that he doesn’t have all the answers.  He’s teachable.  And that makes all the difference in his relationship to every other character in the movie.  I even liked Natalie Portman who looks much more at home with the SFX in this movie than she did in the “Star Wars” movies.  Maybe it’s because in Kenneth Branagh she had a director who actually likes working with his actors.  Anthony Hopkins is properly majestic and awe inspiring as Odin.  Hell, even Rene Russo gets her moment to shine in her small role as Frigga, wife of Odin.  The SFX are simply staggering and I loved how The Rainbow Bridge looks as if it’s got arcane, ancient circuitry within its structure.

The movie could have ended after the battle with The Frost Giants and I’d have been satisfied because to me that captured the totality of the Lee/Kirby Thor.  And I can’t let this review end with once again giving a standing ovation to the performance of Clark Gregg as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Coulson.  Slowly but surely, just as much as Samuel Jackson’s Nick Fury, his character is becoming a major thread linking together this Marvel Movie Universe.  I only wish he was playing Jasper Sitwell because in my head, that’s who he is.

And Idris Elba as Heimdall is absolutely Epic.  ‘Nuff Said.

If you haven’t seen it yet, do so.  THOR is now my favorite Marvel superhero movie.

114 minutes

PG-13

And as an added bonus because I couldn’t help thinking of this while the movie was playing: