Yesterday I watched the excellent New Zealand movie The World’s Fastest Indian about record breaking pensioner Burt Munro. I decided to check what liberties had been taken with the story and looked him up at New Zealand’s 100 Top History Makers but he didn’t rate a mention although I am sure many of the names there would be unfamiliar to most Kiwis. Never mind The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography has thousands of entries and never fails to turn up the required bio…except in this case.
How come the guy can have a movie made about him and be well known outside New Zealand but he receives no recognition there?
The Prime programme about Top 100 history makers programme was pure entertainment value only. Historians laughed at it. As for the DoNZB, the last updating was halfway through last year. If they can get hold of Tim Hanna to write a bio, it’ll probably be up there next time they update.
There are a ton of Kiwis who aren’t listed on the DoNZB (some which surprise me in not being there). Might be editorial decision making.
I myself hadn’t heard of Burt Munro before the movie came out, but I’d say the motorcycle fraternity were well aware of him here.
My dad, who’s pretty keen on his bikes, had heard of him, but he didn’t seem to be known in the way that John Britten is. They had the (I think) original Indian that Burt Munro raced on displayed near my work when the movie was released. Pretty cool little thing.
Loved it. As ever Hopkins was just terrific. I liked the humanity of it all, and was willing to forgive all the bio-pic cliches because they were nicely handled. The pace may be a bit leisurely for some (not me though) but I often feel that is true of NZ films.
I don’t know whether there are lots of crap NZ films that I never get to see but the NZ film industry seems to rate 100% on the films I have seen not a dud amongst them.
As an aside, there is a biography about Burt Munro, you may find it interesting, and it will probably be a good reference to allow you to separate the facts from the fiction in the movie.
I have read the book but haven’t seen the movie. My understanding is that the movie shows him making just one trip to the salt flats. In fact, he made several trips. Each one an arduous journey relying on the goodwill of others to see him through, and each one being hampered by various technical problems. He never did get his one good run.
With limited funds, the NZ film industry can’t afford to finance crap (Australia is in a similar position in my opinion.) Though crap always manages to get through occassionally.
I found a good site through Google - Burt Munro was enough and an Indian site came up. Has heaps of details and confirms a lot of the stuff from the movie. He must have had a few good runs as he still holds a world land speed record from 1967. The movie is about his first trip to Bonneville, after the credits they say that he went back 9 more times and set several world records.
One of the reasons his record stands is that there was a rule change which basically meant that current time trials set in his class are not competitive, I can’t remember the details.
I didn’t think his first trip to Bonneville was at all successful. His bike always showed promise, but there was only a small number of occasions where he managed to set a time. Normally the engine would blow up or something (it’s been a while since I read the book.) In the book he says the ideal run is where the engine blows up just crossing the line. Implying that it was tuned such that everything was extracted from it in the required time and distance with nothing left to spare.
Some of the stuff that people were doing out there was just crazy. There was one guy who, in an attempt at making himself more streamlined, wore nothing but a pair of bathers and lay flat along the seat, hanging on for dear life, with his bare feet trailing along behind.