Movies · Dominic Foster

The Worlds Fastest Indian

February 2, 2006 on 11:39 am | In Movies | No Comments

Here’s a story for you.

Burt Monro, a 67 year old pensioner from one of the southern most towns in New Zealand modifies an American motorcycle built in 1920 with parts that he makes himself (such as pistons cast from recycled metal) in a shed where he lives. He sets land speed records for New Zealand and Australia on this motorcycle on roads and beaches.

He saves enough money from his pension and local donations to ship himself and his motorcycle to the USA (working his passage on the ship to cut travel costs).

In the USA he buys a car, makes a trailer from scrap parts and drives himself and his motorcyle to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

In Bonneville he sets the landspeed record for a streamlined motorcycle at 178.971 mph. More fine tuning attains speads close to 206 mph. His 1967 record of 190.07 mph remains unbroken.

By himself. Without a support team or sponsorship. At the age of 67. Travelling overland from the other side of the world. In 1962. Breaking land speed records which remain unbroken to this day - on a motorcycle modified with parts he built himself - in a shed where he lived.

Beat that! And remember it next time you tell yourself something is impossible.

And go and see The Worlds Fastest Indian.

Technorati Tags: Movies, Motorcycles, Success, New Zealand

Touching the Void

August 21, 2005 on 9:52 pm | In 31 Days to a Better Blog, Movies | No Comments

Well it’s been another family weekend for me - and I thought I’d write about the movie - Touching the Void - that we watched last night.

I had seen it at the cinema last year, shortly after the Auckland Film Festival, but noticed a few weeks ago that it has been released on DVD. Cath had never seen it, and I had always raved about it - so once we got Ethan and Jamie to bed we settled down and cranked up the DVD player.

The movie itself is a true story about 2 British climbers - Joe Simpson (21) and Simon Yates (25) -who travelled to Peru in 1985 to climb the previously unconquered 21,000 ft mountain - Siula Grande. There had been previous attempts at this mountain, but all had failed.

I wouldn’t want to spoil the story for anyone who has not yet seen this movie, but sometime on the climb, Joe Simpson slipped and broke his leg - in possibly the most excruciating way imaginable - at 19,000 ft.

While Simon tries to rescue him, Joe ends up falling into a crevasse in the ice - and what follows is the most incredible story of some-ones will to survive that you are ever likely hear. Like I said - I don’t want to spoil it for you if you are planning to watch it - so I’ll shut up about the rest of the movie.

However, what really struck me was the way in which Joe describes how he overcame the massive odds that were stacked against him - and how he psychologically overcame what would have caused most to just give up.

I was actually going to write a post about how you could learn from this movie - and movies like it - that success in something is often the accomplishment of little goals - and how it can be applied to your Blogging Success. But now that I have thought some more - I don’t honestly think that I can do Joe Simpson justice by comparing his accomplishment to the domain of Blogging.

So, If you are into Climbing, Mountaineering or Trekking, and you have not seen this movie - then I recommend that you watch it.

If you are into a superb thriller of a movie that tests the human spirit to its limit then, again, I recommend that you watch this movie.

If you do go and watch Touching the Void - then please come back here and post a comment afterwards. I’d be really keen to hear what you thought of it.