The World's Fastest Indian (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #21

Anthony Hopkins calls "The World's Fastest Indian" his best film. That might surprise people who know the many excellent films he's made in his career, including his Oscar winning performance as Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs". Sit and watch this film, and you'll understand what he means. It's the most uplifting feel-good movie ever made. It tells the tale of a man who has a dream and refuses to give up, even though all the odds are stacked against him.

And it's a true story.

In 1962 Burt Munro was an eccentric 63-year-old living in a shed in Invercargill, New Zealand. He spent every day modifying his 40-year-old Indian motorcycle, which gives the film its name. The Indian Motorcycle Company built motorcycles from 1901 to 1953. The original bike, as it was sold, had a top speed of 54 mph, but Burt was reaching speeds over 150 mph. His dream was to travel to the Bonneville Speed Trials to set an official world speed record. People laughed at him, but they couldn't stop him doing what he wanted to do.

The film is for the most part a road movie. We see Burt travelling across the USA, from Los Angeles to Utah, meeting characters who are increasingly unusual.

Tina is a transvestite who works as a clerk in his Los Angeles motel. A naive question: did transvestites appear in the open in the 1960's? People were a lot pruder in those days.

Maybe I'll provide a full gallery of the fascinating characters he meets in my next review. They're a cross-section of American society, from the richest to the poorest.

I'll just give you one spoiler. Burt Munro succeeded in his dream. He set a speed record of 205 mph for motorcycles under 1000 cc, a record that still stands today.

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