An interview with writer/director and producer Roger Donaldson
What attracted you to Burt Munro's story?
One thing about New Zealand is that if you are determined to do something, this is a country where things can happen. You don't get held back by bureaucracy or people having a preconceived idea of what a film maker is or what sort of training you should have or if you've got the wherewithal to go out and do it. This is a country that's always been very sympathetic to the 'go, do it' mentality and Burt Munro really did have that mentality.
He really did decide that he was going to make this old 1920 Indian motorcycle into the world's fastest motorcycle, and he set about it in a way only New Zealanders really know how to do. We call it a number eight wire mentality: take what you have around you and make the most of it and don't bitch and moan about what you don't have.
I came to meet Burt Munro because my partner in my photographic business, Mike Smith and I were both crazy about motorbikes. We heard about this old boy Burt Munro, down in Invercargill, who had a motorcycle that was supposedly a land speed record holder. We made contact with Burt and he invited us down here to Invercargill; he said "come down here and see my bike".
I still remember when we turned up on Bainfield road where Burt
lived. It was about ten o'clock at night by the time we got down
there and Burt was so pleased to see us that he had to demonstrate
his bike to us immediately. So he wheels his motorcycle outside to
the back yard and gets it cranked up. Then there's screaming, the
noise, you can't hear yourself talk let alone think, the lights are
coming on at the
neighbours' houses, people are screaming and yelling "Burt you old
bastard turn that motorbike off". That was Burt Munro.
And from that first meeting with Burt I wanted to make a film about
him. So we persuaded Burt, who didn't plan on going back to America
- this was in 1971 - but we said we'll pay your fare one more time.
So Mike and I went with Burt to America. I remember we had rented a
Mustang car and Burt had bought himself a old Chev and the Chev was
about as fast as the old Mustang. We were trying to do travelling
shots of him making his way from Los Angeles to Bonneville; we'd
race ahead of him at a hundred miles an hour and just get the
camera nearly set up and Burt would stream past.
We went with Burt to Bonneville and there we shot some film about him which became the documentary that was screened on Television New Zealand, in 1973, called "Offerings to the God of Speed", which were words that he had written in chalk in his old shed that he lived in.
On the background to making the film
Such humble beginnings, the documentary on Burt was made with no money and I was at the beginning of my film-making career. I've learned a lot and I always thought that I never really did justice to the subject, I guess that's why I became obsessed with making this movie about Burt.
It started out in 1979 before I even made my second feature film
(Smash Palace, 1981) I think we've nearly had this movie financed
several times already. After I finished my last feature film in the
States, I just thought, I've been talking about this movie for so
darned long and if I don't make it I might as well admit that I'm
never going to make it. So for the last 2 years I rewrote the
script and then set about trying to raise the money for it. Gary
Hannam, who's been in there from the beginning, and I set out to
track down money around the world, and one of the things that
really happened and got it off the ground was a Japanese investor,
in fact, a woman who I had met through doing publicity for movies
in Japan. My wife, Marliese, kept in contact with her over the
years and Megumi asked if I had any scripts that may be suitable
for investing in and I said I just happened to have one here in my
back pocket, The World's Fastest Indian.
Megumi took the script back to Japan and they said we're going to
invest in this; they loved it, they really were just knocked out by
it. So once I had their commitment, I had something that I could
hang trying to raise the rest of the money on. But it's been a
torturous, torturous trip to get there&.
Next I got Anthony Hopkins to commit to making the movie. So once I had some real serious casting in place for Burt then I knew I had a movie, if I could get the finance together. And then I also realized that I had the problem that the Bonneville Salt Flats are only available and suitable at a certain time of the year so unless I did it this year (2004) I'd have to wait at least a year. The chances (in a year's time) of it happening really were pretty slim as Tony has many offers. Gary and I realised we would have to start spending our own money.
It was a go movie 3 weeks before production started, having built the bikes, having got a film crew working in Utah, with Gary and I paying the bills. A situation that everybody tells you is not really the greatest place for a filmmaker to be& but in a way I think that I was, and Gary too, were so determined that we were going make this movie. And I think that the fact that we were prepared to spend our own money, and a lot of it, to make it come this far, gave other people a confidence to maybe get involved as well and they saw the passion that we had for it.
On Burt Munro
He was a character and I think that if we can capture that great quality that he had about what he was doing with his life, we will have a great film. He was really, really happy although there were things that happened in his life that I'm sure had an impact on him, like when he was 14 his twin brother was killed. I'm sure that must have had an impact on him. Not that he ever admitted it but this was a guy who, as his grandson said, wanted to die with his boots on&
This was a guy who really loved motorcycles and was obviously
very talented in riding them and was also very talented in making
them go fast. He also had an interesting philosophy on his life.
And it is that philosophy about growing old and having dreams and
ambition& that's what I think that this movie is about, it's
less about his motorbike in a way, it's less about motorcycles,
it's more about just the philosophy of life and what we've tried to
do is build an entertaining, amusing, hopefully touching,
script.
