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Secret Asian Man checks out THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN!
Hey folks, Harry here with a look at one of them films from New Zealand, isle where I've heard it's possible to make good flickers from time to time. And it sounds like this is another one, where apparently Anthony Hopkins plays the world's fastest Indian. Read... it all makes sense. You'll see...
Hey, don't know how interested you'll be in this but thought I'd drop
in with a review of the NZ-made Anthony Hopkins film "The World's
Fastest Indian". It was a test screening so it was the usual story of
the film being unfinished with temp score and missing effects etc. I
had no real preconceived notions going in, but ended up enjoying it.
The film is a biopic of New Zealander Burt Munro, an elderly eccentic
who travelled to Utah in the 1960's to attempt to set a land speed
record on a 1920's motorcycle (the titular "Indian") that he adapted
himself. Will he succeed against all odds? Watch and find out, folks!
I'd heard of Munro only after this movie came into production so was
unfamiliar with the character. Quite a character he is though. This is
just the sort of thing that New Zealanders will love. We pride
ourselves on our abilities to produce homespun technology and
innovation that can compete with the worlds best. It is this reason
why Peter Jackson has practically been elevated to sainthood.
Munro is
a classic example of this: he lives in a shed, enhances his bike with
found items such as old fridge doors and trims his toenails with an
electric sander. Again, this is playing directly to the sentiments of
us Kiwi's; as for how well it will play to an international audience,
who knows? Hopkins might attract at least a little interest. He does
well with the part, obviously enjoying himself playing an eccentric
character. I'd seen a few pieces of old footage of Munro and Hopkins
really nails it. An old guy who is still bursting with youth on the
inside, not particularly worldly but with a surprisingly keen
intelligence underneath his unlikely demeanour. Accent a bit dodgy
though. This is the first time I'd heard an international actor do a
New Zealand accent, and the results range from brilliant to bizarre
and back again within the same sentence. It's a very rare accent to do
though, and he takes a noble stab at it. Only native New Zealanders
will be bothered anyway.
The movie has some definite flaws, but they
can still be weeded out as it moves to its final edit. The middle
section, where Munro arrives in L.A. and makes his way across to Utah,
gets a little repetitive as he suffers repeated setbacks but runs into
friendly Americans to help him onward. This would be fine as a road
movie, which this section basically is, but in the middle of a
traditional three-act structure it wears a little thin and just feels
like procrastination. Munro is an extremely likeable character, but
there is essentially one-note to his character, plucky determinism in
unlikely odds, which begins to grate after a while. Once the film
arrives in Utah these problems do disappear and we are rooting for him
once again.
There's also the odd spots of rough acting and bad
dialogue which again could be reduced with editing. There are some
truly excruciating lines that tell the audience EXACTLY what to think
such as "Oh Burt, you're an inspiration! If only I could always look
on the bright side of life like you do!". Director Roger Donaldson has
made a couple of landmark New Zealand films (Sleeping Dogs and Smash
Palace), before making several Hollywood films (most recently The
Recruit). This has been a dream project of his for years and he has
succeeded in making a very traditional, crowd-pleasing picture. At
least, this crowd seemed to like it. Hope the rest of the world does
too.
Call me Secret Asian Man.
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+ Expand All
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Apr 11, 2005 9:16:19 AM CDT
"The World's Fastest Indian" starring Athony Hopkins? Is this li
by big bad clone
Hollywood goes to far!
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Bet we can find a faster Indian
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Indian. Is. The. Make. Of. The. Bike.
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Speaking of the New Zealand accent, does anyone else think it sounds like something in between Ustrylian and Seth Ifrican? Makes you wonder about the processes that govern the divergence of speech patterns in such situations. It would be interesting to know how the composition of the colonists who settled these countries compared, in terms of regional accents and so forth. Or is that just me?
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Being a Kiwi, I am interested in the origins of our accent: apparently it started pretty early on in the European history of our country (Maori history is an entirely different story) For a while, the 'proper' way of speaking was a ghastly snobby and artifical thing called Received Pronounciation: think of an upperclass englishman speaking with a carrot shoved up his arse. Very popular with the rich set last century. The ethnic composition of NZ mainly came from England, with small smatterings of Irish, German, Dutch, Scandanavian and Yugoslavian. Austalians has a broadly similar ethnic groups, but with larger minorities. It also accounts for the somewhat brasher Australian character, whereas New Zealand was for a long time looking nervously back to the Old Country for guidance for a long time, which accounts for our more reticent manner. We're over that now, thankfully. A word of advice though: try not to mistake Kiwi's for Aussies: I don;t care, but some of us get stroppy. And don't ever mistake us for South Africans!!! If I ever sound like a Sarth Efrikkan to foreign ears is the day i cut out my own tongue with a rusty razor :)
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Apr 11, 2005 9:56:28 PM CDT
Native Americans have begun referring to Hopkins as Dances with
by mel garga
Just kidding. I actually like these kinds of stories. It seems oddly familiar to "The Straight Story" directed by David Lynch with Richard Farnsworth starring.
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