Life is a journey.  I know that is a cliché statement, but I am going to get more specific with this metaphor.  There is a current that moves all of us inexorably from when we are born to the day we die.  It cannot be stopped.  What we do along the way counts, and God gives us the talents we need to accomplish our Divinely ordained purpose.  In my experience, limited though it may be in some respects, those that surrender to these movements are the ones that flourish.  Those that struggle truly do so by their own choice.  I may be making this sound easy.  I understand not everyone sees things in the same way.  At the same time, I am speaking of a truth that comes from my Faith and I see bore out in a film like The World’s Fastest Indian (2005).  God has a plan for us.  When we come to realize and give ourselves over to it, everything works as it should no matter the struggles.

Those struggles are literally on display in The World’s Fastest Indian’s first scene with aging speed enthusiast Burt Munro’s (Sir Anthony Hopkins) waking up in his shed.  The one room building doubles as his house, and on its walls are the flotsam of his trials and errors from his attempts to make his equally aged 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle go faster.  Though some of his neighbors are annoyed with early morning engine revving, for the most part his southern New Zealand community is supportive of him.  More to the point, they want to see him achieve his dream of traveling to the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States to attempt to break the land speed record for this class of vehicle.  There are doubters.  For example, at a fundraiser on his birthday, a local motorcycle club challenges him, not believing his custom build stands a chance of beating their more conventional bikes.  Burt accepts the challenge.  During their beach race, he needs a push to get off the starting line, but once he gets going, he passes his competitors like they are standing still. Unfortunately, finishing requires a return, and he stalls out and falls on the pivot.  Undeterred, he presses ahead with preparing to travel to America.  In order to get the last of the necessary funds, he accepts Fran’s (Annie Whittle) advice, his sweetheart that works at the bank, and takes out a mortgage on his property.  That is not the only development Burt experiences with her.  Following a night of adult activity, he awakens to chest pains and is taken to the hospital.  The doctors tell him that he has a heart condition, requiring pills to manage, and that he should no longer ride.  Nonetheless, it is off to the dockyards to see the Indian loaded and take a place with the crew of the freight ship as a cook to work off the cost of his passage.  Once he makes it to Los Angeles, there is some adjustment to the realities of the United States in the 1960s.  Wanting to see Hollywood before making his way to Utah where he will be racing, the rude cab driver drops Burt off in a rough area.  He is then ripped off by a woman peddling flowers before he is finally able to get a hotel room at an establishment frequented by female escorts and their dates.  Still, he remains friendly as ever, and gets assistance from a transvestite motel worker named Tina (Chris Williams), whom Burt mistakes for a woman.  Tina eventually lets on his true gender, but Burt is still thankful for the help in obtaining his bike out from the dockyard, purchasing a car, and getting on the road.  The trek to Bonneville does not go smoothly.  First, a tire on his handmade trailer falls off while going down the road, forcing him to make a temporary fix by attaching a log to the stricken side.  Once more, providence shines on him in the form of Ada (Diane Ladd), an elderly lady whose homestead he happens upon.  She has the necessary parts to make a more permanent repair, and with a turn in the sheets he is again on his way.  Dropping off a hitchhiker, he finally arrives at Bonneville.  The first person he meets is Jim Moffet (Christoper Lawford), who has brought his own vehicle to Bonneville to try to set records.  Like so many others, Jim initially cannot believe a sixty-something Kiwi is there by himself with a nearly fifty-year-old motorcycle to make a run.  Of course, Burt wins Jim over, and the latter becomes the older gentleman’s main advocate for letting the Indian race when the organizers give Burt a hard time.  Whether it is the fact that he did not pre-register, the state of his handmade parts, the lack of safety equipment, or simply his age, they do not want to let Burt compete.  What convinces everyone is Burt’s continued determination to test his bike’s speed on the flats, getting final approval when he almost sneaks onto the course.  From there, as has been the theme, everyone gets behind Burt as he first shows that he is capable of handling his vehicle.  With his next run, he breaks the world record, fulfilling his lifelong dream to a stunned but proud group of onlookers.  He then returns to his New Zealand shed and the film ends.

As the end credits for The World’s Fastest Indian roll, a postscript tells us that Burt returned a few more times to Bonneville, topping his previous marks.  In doing a little further research, I learned that what is shown in the film is a composite of many trips to the United States, including before the events depicted.  Though this slightly detracts from the narrative of him being a dreamer that casts his fate on Providence armed only with his conviction that he is following the right path, it is apparently not so far off the mark to be an issue.  Besides, it is his behavior that I would like to highlight with my Catholic analysis.  Despite not being portrayed in a Christian fashion, there is much we can take from his goals and how he goes about accomplishing them.  The first, and best place to go with this discussion is Scripture.  What this boils down to is placing our trust in God, and, unsurprisingly, the Bible has plenty of passages that underscore the importance of doing so.  The one that works best for the movie is Philippians 4:6, “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.”  On the way to achieving his goal, Burt is embarrassed by a biker gang, must rely on charity, has a heart attack, loses a tire from his trailer, and all to nearly be told that he could not race.  Any one of us might despair.  I know there have been moments in my life when I have been unable to achieve something for which I so long strived.  It is hard not to become bitter.  Bitterness and anxiety are related, the former coming after the latter in the face of defeat.  God knows and understands those feelings better than we do, and He has something better in mind for us in the midst of our pain.  Even with this knowledge, it is natural to have those pangs of sadness.  This is what makes Burt so extraordinary.  I might not approve of his philandering, but he demonstrates a quiet determination that is worthy of any saint.

Speaking of worthy, so too is The World’s Fastest Indian.  Interestingly, it is a little over two hours long, but my synopsis was on the shorter side.  Also, not all of Burt’s behavior is exactly saintly, but who is perfect in this regard?  Again, this can be said for some of the holiest men and women in the Church’s history.  Even so, I think you will be as charmed by this movie as those who meet Burt during his journey.