The World's Fastest Indian

The story of New Zealander Burt Munro’s efforts to race his 1920 Indian motorcycle on the Bonneville Salt Flats makes for one of the most heart-warming tales and genuinely uplifting movie experiences I’ve had in the past couple of years. Part road movie in which Burt travels across America before reaching his destination and part realisation of an old man’s lifelong dream, the audience gets to take in some old time Americana through the eyes of an unstoppable kiwi whose wisdom and approach to life makes him an easy guy to love as he brings out the best in everyone who crosses his path. As such when he not only manages to fulfil his dream of simply taking part in the speedway event but also sets a new land speed record you can’t help but share in his joy.

A personal project for Australian filmmaker Roger Donaldson (who started his career with a documentary on the genuine article back in 1970 after meeting him subsequent to the events this film is based upon) the film is impeccably cast, from Anthony Hopkins who delivers a convincing accent and the wisdom mixed with eccentricity required for the lead role right down to the smaller parts such as the young boy who has befriended Burt back home in New Zealand to the characters who take up his appeal in the Bonneville Salts. This casting combined with the gentle humour which is laced throughout the script helps to make everything about the film just work, making it easy to forgive the lack of genuine detractors a character like Burt would have had in real life because they’d only drag a film like this down (indeed we only see a few knowing looks pointed in his direction and the occasional off the cuff remark in the film). Ultimately though this leaves me with not a lot else to say about The World’s Fastest Indian without endlessly repeating and citing examples of why it’s so effortlessly engaging, on repeat viewings just as much as it was on the first.

Highly recommended.

The Disc

Presented in 1080P Widescreen and encoded using the VC1 codec The World’s Fastest Indian boasts a lovely image quality throughout and is generally a very pleasing transfer, though it does have a few talking points. First and foremost is the aspect ratio, with the film presented here in 1.78:1 “open matte” (as it is on most DVD releases with the notable exception of the Region 4 Australian editions) when the film was presented theatrically in the wider 2.35:1 ratio. Director Roger Donaldson caused a similar stir with his last film, The Recruit, when that appeared on DVD under the same circumstances. In both cases the film was shot using the Super 35 process, and the image has been opened up for the home video releases (apparently) in accordance with the director’s wishes, giving more image on the top and bottom of the frame without losing too much on the sides. Personally this is not something which bothers this viewer, as the film looks to be well framed at all times here and it would appear to be a decision made by the director. The other talking points fall under the usual categories, with the source print being in near but not quite pristine condition, showing the occasional white speckle while film grain is apparent throughout but naturally reproduced and only really apparent in the darker scenes and the more sparse daytime vistas. The New Zealand portions of the movie, notably those set in Burt’s shed are quite dimly lit and shadow detail here is quite low, but this would appear to be how the film is shot and indeed any other points I could make would fall under the same banner, with detail levels otherwise consistently high in both foreground and background while colour hues and skin tones are accurately rendered. Another area which the transfer impresses in is the Salt Flats sequences, with the bright sunlight and white floors making for some very strikingly white vistas which are handled with no sign of blooming at all.

Subtitles are present on the main feature in English SDH and Spanish.

English audio options come in both Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround and lossless Dolby True HD 5.1 Surround varieties. This is not an action film though, with sound design more focused around setting the mood with ambient sound effects and the original score channelled throughout both front and rear speakers. Dialogue is always clear and correctly placed while the bass does rumble and your surrounds will open up in the speed test sequences towards the latter part of the film. On the whole both tracks sound good, and even downmixed to Dolby Digital or DTS (the only options available to me on my Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on) the True HD mix offers better clarity and more finely tuned audio placement.

All bonus features from the Region 1 DVD release are carried over to this HD DVD where they are presented in standard definition. There are no subtitles for the bonus content.

Director’s Commentary
Roger Donaldson flies solo for this excellent commentary track in which he does pretty much exactly what I had hoped, and that is to identify which points in the story are based on actual events and stories Burt Munro relayed to him in the time they spent together, and which were artistic license. Along the way we also learn a great deal about the production, evolution of the script (which he first began working on in 1979) and plenty about Donaldson himself and the inspiration for the movie. A down to earth character who rarely finds himself without anything to say Donaldson carries the track very well and keeps things entertaining and above all else, informative.

The Making of “The World’s Fastest Indian”
This 45-minute featurette is a strange hybrid of EPK style interviews crossed with a more retrospective making-of documentary approach, in that most of the interviewees have only positive things to say about the film, its production, the director and their fellow cast and crew members but instead of them being intercut frequently with each other and clips from the film the talking-heads are allowed to play out and give us a more thorough idea of what it is they’re talking about. Topics cover the usual bases, the director, the script, the character of Burt Munro in this case and the individual characters/actors featured. There is quite a bit of repetition in the interviews, with the first two topics featuring shorter interview clips which are then allowed to play out in their entirety later on when the individual characters and their respective actors are covered. Another oddity and a rather annoying oversight is the lack of titles to identify the cast and crew featured, though in the case of the actors this is at least cleared up via the title cards which introduce each of them for the last topic covering their characters. On the whole this is a worthwhile making-of, with the positive spiel even coming across as genuine for the most part as opposed to crass sucking up, while it ends superbly as Tim Shadbolt (the real-life mayor of Invercargill) takes to the screen and instead of talking about his character in the film just goes on about Burt, his town and what a thrill the whole thing is. In the spirit of the featurette, he’s just a really nice bloke!

“Offerings to the Gods of Speed” Documentary
Roger Donaldson started his filmmaking career with this 27-minute original 1971 documentary all about Burt Munro. In it we get to hear from Burt and his fellow townsfolk of Invercargill, while the piece is well edited and moves at a good pace. One of the best extras any DVD can hope to offer is a documentary such as this on a real-life person they portray, and this one is made all the more entertaining and worthwhile by way of the many stories we hear Anthony Hopkins relay in the film told through the mouth of Burt Munro in this documentary.

Deleted Scenes
Presented in 2.35:1 non-anamorphic widescreen are four deleted scenes, which as is often the case, are non-essential but do offer the chance to see Anthony Hopkins cover another of the stories we see Burt tell in the documentary.

Southland: Burt’s Hometown of Invercargill
This 3-minute tourism video for Southland features some staggeringly awful music but is moderately interesting if you’ve ever thought of visiting New Zealand.

Soundtrack Promo
Just a static screen advertising the soundtrack CD.

Trailers
Sadly there is no original trailer for The World’s Fastest Indian, but there are trailers for forthcoming HD DVD releases “The Lost City” and “District B13”.

Overall

The World’s Fastest Indian is one of those films you can watch regardless of your mood, as it requires so little from the viewer yet gives so much in return. Magnolia have done a great job with this HD DVD release which combines a strong AV presentation with a solid collection of extras.