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My wife bought me the World’s Fastest Indian DVD for Father’s Day this year, and what an excellent gift.  I had wanted to see the movie in the theater, but our youngest toddler isn’t totally ‘down’ with the babysitting thing yet.  Needless to say, we missed it.  In fact (and embarrassingly so because she does not like motorcycles), her mother saw it in the theaters and told us what a great movie it was.

Well…I saw it last night and it truly was.  I’m not going to go into the detail and/or history of Burt Munro - the guy who the movie is about - because I didn’t know it before last night.  In fact I didn’t know who Burt Munro was before last night.  That said, if the movie’s character was even close to the real thing, I would like to have met him.

The movie is about the adventure of a New Zealand small town gear-head named Burt Munro getting to the Bonneville Flats in Utah for Speed Week.  He was not a guy who had a lot of money so he had to improvise along the way.  The combination of charm, self-reliance, determination, and a little luck along the way got him there.  Once he arrived, the rest went down in history…literally.

Its the best movie I have seen in a long time.  I put it up there with Forrest Gump in terms of viewing enjoyment.  While its definitely a movie for enthusiasts, I think it would be liked by people of all walks of life, not just motorcyclists.  I true walk away feeling good movie.

Nothing is without controversy though.  At the end of the movie it stated in the pre-credits that Munro still holds a 1000cc record.  The Land Speed Record community has something different to say about that:

While Hollywood has seldom gotten a racing or car movie right, some land
speed racers notice an inaccuracy in the new movie The World’s Fastest
Indian. While New Zealand racer Burt Munro did come to Bonneville to run his
Indian motorcycle in the 1960s, his was not the world’s fastest motorcycle
at the time, and he did not set any world records. The distinction is a
powerful one among the land speed racing community.

So, for the record, the world motorcycle speed mark for that time period
belongs to Bob Leppan, who rode his Triumph Streamliner to 245 mph on the
salt.

The Vesco brothers, Don and Rick, broke that record, going more than 300
mph. Dave Campos holds the current mark at 322 mph.

All of the two-wheeled land speed records can be found here…and you’ll notice that Munro’s name is missing.  I don’t really care.  Its a great movie dedicated to what appears to be a great guy.  Go and see it.

EDIT - A friend of mine summed up the movie perfectly:

It’s a good movie about the human spirit, which makes it enjoyable for everyone…not just two wheeled enthusiasts.

EDIT (and a hat-tip to mcstanger): 

To find Burt Munro’s standing record, go to http://www.scta-bni.org/ Click Bonneville Records, then Section 8 Bonneville National Motorcycle Records, Scroll down to 1000cc. Next to the last category, S-F.

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