Review of The World's Fastest Indian (2005) by Dawdlingpoet — 20 Nov 2021

Burt is a really nice guy, if not just a little naive and he has some funny encounters, when he first arrives in the US, driving on the wrong side of the road, giving a car salesman, Fernando (played by Paul Rodriguez) a scare and becoming acquaintences with a transvestite, Tina (played by Chris Williams), that works in a Hollywood motel. It seems that everyone who meets Burt becomes enamoured with him, which makes you want him to do well. Its a pretty slow movie really but its funny and touching/sentimental throughout and I wouldn't say that its too boring but don't expect it to be full of fast paced racing footage, its more about the man himself, his journey across the US and the people he meets.

Anthony Hopkins is well cast in his role of Burt. He certainly portrays him as a kind, loveable old guy with a biy of a glint in his eye. Its sad to see when his health problems flare up, it makes him more determined to complete his task and make everyone he's met proud, I think. The music score is quite emotive and adds to the film well, not being too overly powerful or really unmemorable either. There are some nice landscape scenes at times and otherwise the camerawork is quite good, especially during the racing scenes.

I'm sure that anyone who does race would be able to relate, at least in part, to Burt, when he talks about the thrill of racing and shows a young boy fan of his, back at home in New Zealand, his photo album and shows that his life has been all about racing, for the last forty years or so.

I thought that it was quite a good family type movie, really I have no complaints about it at all, other than that some may think it doesn't show enough racing scenes perhaps but I certainly enjoyed it. This, I felt, is a very good movie, one thats pretty much safe for all the family to watch. Hopkins does very well as Burt and in general I feel the movie was very well made, with good camerawork and musical score and an interesting story based on a true story, what more could you want? this movie I definitely recommend.