I had wanted to see this film when it came out, but never bothered, but when it was in HD on HD NET I quickly TIVOed it, and am glad I did. This is an enjoyable film about the spirit of one man, well one Kiwi man, and his quest to get a land speed record, and even more interesting it is a true story. This is in fact a slow paced character piece on the man, and what better actor to play Burt Munro than Anthony Hopkins? None that I can think of. An enjoyable film about never giving up ones dreams.

THis is the story of Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins) and old Kiwi with a 1929 Indian Motorcycle that he is constantly modifying. He lives in a shed, and doesn’t keep up his house or yard (much to the chagrin of his neighbors) and is always working on his bike to make it faster. His dream is to go to the US and Bonneville salt flats and compete in speed week and set a world record. To this end he makes his own pistons and self modified the bike.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Burt saves his money from his social security, and his friends try to raise money, but he has not much time to make it in time for this years race. He asks a woman out from the social security office, and she convinces him that he should take a loan on his home to get the money, but also he has what seems to be a heart attack and ends up in the hospital. He has heart problems, and has to take nitroglycerine pills to stop the pain. Burt goes anyway.

He ends up in LA, spending way too much of his hard earned money. He meets a transsexual who helps him get a car and his motorcycle through customs, and he makes a deal with the car dealer to help fix some cars to be allowed to make a trailer. On the way he loses a tire, and meets an indian man who gives him a necklace. He then stops at a woman’s house and gets a new tire, and has sex with her, charming his way across the country.

At the Speed Trials he finds that he needed to register 2 months ago, but he makes a lot of friends and through shear determination ends up getting himself into the contest even though they don’t allow his bike to pass the test inspection.

And when Burt goes he i shaving steering issues, but manages to break 200 miles per hour and a record breaking win, before he crashes, though not badly, and he comes home a hero. And he later returned 9 times to break more records, with his 1967 record still standing.

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Not exactly a completely true story (the speed record he got was not quite for that much, though he was supposed to have gotten up to 205 MPH, still quite a good story about Kiki ingenuity and determination with an amazing performance by the always great Anthony Hopkins.