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World's Fastest Wardrobe

Entry 271, on 2006-01-10 at 18:53:20 (Rating 1, Activities)

Over the Christmas break I saw two interesting movies. The first was "The World's Fastest Indian", a movie about Burt Munro, a New Zealand local (from my old home town of Invercargill, in fact) who set a speed record in the 1960s on a modified ancient Indian motorcycle. The second was "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", an interpretation of C. S. Lewis' classic fantasy story.

Movies which are advertised as being based on reality always worry me, because they almost inevitably bend the facts to the point that the original story is unrecognisable. I have done some research on Munro, and it seems the story is basically correct, although dates, the exact speed achieved, etc have been changed around (I could be wrong - if you know more about this, please email me).

Anyway, even if only half of the movie is true it is still an extraordinary story of incredible persistence, courage, and good old Kiwi ingenuity. I think Anthony Hopkins did a fantastic job playing the role of Munro. He portrayed the low key, slightly eccentric and absent minded character beautifully. Its just the way I imagined Munro would be. If you still haven't seen this movie, and you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was a mixture which involved a certain amount of disappointment. In places it was beautifully directed and well paced, but in others I felt the story was a bit trite. On the other hand, it is an old story, and its been so long since I read the book its hard to remember how close to the original it is. Some of the special effects and models weren't as good as I would have expected either. I think the Lord of the Rings did that much better, for example.

Some people have commented on the allusions to Christianity in the movie. They are undeniably there, but they relate to themes which certainly aren't exclusive to Christianity. OK, so a great gentle hero has to sacrifice his life because of the treachery of someone who was supposed to be a friend, but he returned from death then disappeared again. Could be anyone! This is a movie which is worth seeing, even though it could have been better.

Comment 1 (164) by OJB on 2006-01-20 at 12:50:41:

Regarding the accuracy of the speed record as shown in the movie...

Apparently the original record was for a streamlined bike of under 1000 cc, but that record has since been beaten. The record stands for the world's fastest Indian motorcycle, though.

Comment 2 (214) by Larry Hoisington on 2006-06-23 at 03:10:00: I want to do it.

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