If you are familiar with the many stories and movies that are based on the “rags to riches” story line, then you will enjoy the film “The Worlds Fastest Indian” that follows the same storyline. In the film The Worlds Fastest Indian, Directed by Roger Donaldson, a film about a New Zealander called Burt Munro who seeks to set a new land speed record on his Indian Scout motorcycle, who faces many challenges and set backs on the way to accomplishing his dream.

Within the film, Anthony Hopkins who plays Burt Munro, has a lot of things to focus on to make his character performance perfect. Some of these things consist of accent, behaviour, expressions and many more. The use of these acting techniques added depth to the character and a sense of realism, making the character more believable. As a big actor who has starred in many big movies, each with a different role to play, The difficulty of changing such roles must be incredible. From being a serial killer in previous movies, to a simple man from a small city in Invercargill, New Zealand, it is quite amazing to see Anthony’s vast amount of skills. The idea for Anthony Hopkins was to be as believable as possible and act as a true New Zealander. This makes the story line a whole lot more exciting as he travelled from very far away just to accomplish his dream. Some excellent examples from the movie was Burt’s simplistic behaviour and how he handled every situation precisely as we would imagine an old Kiwi would. Another thing was Burt’s very classic sense of humour. The way he cracked these very old and overused jokes, but still made everyone laugh, not only the other characters in the movie but also in the audience. In my opinion, Anthony did an excellent job at acting as Burt Munro and after seeing the movie a couple times, I don’t believe anyone else could quite perform it quite like he did. Great skills, great performance and great finished product from the director Roger Donaldson and Anthony Hopkins.

The camera angles and film techniques used within the film had great importance to the overall outcome. The film consisted of a large variety of various techniques that were used to magnify a lot of smaller but important features that the viewers may not have seen without the films enhancement. Film techniques and camera angles add depth and shine light on certain features to make the movie more thrilling and entertaining. In this films case, the film techniques used add a lot more depth and hidden features to add detail and hidden messages. Some great examples of film techniques and camera angles adding depth and detail is when Burt is preparing for his test run to get into the Bonneville speed week. The camera does a quick zoom in onto Burts fingernails, which are very dirty. This camera angle stuck out because it shows just how hard Burt had to work to get there and also how he doesn’t have the equipment and team members that the other competitors have. Camera angles like these that are so simple yet add a lot of depth and detail, that make the film what it is. In my opinion, Roger Donaldson used the camera angles and film techniques to their full potential, which was to add as much backstory and detail as possible. Excellent job on this.

Sound and music techniques dispersed throughout the film add that sense of thrill and excitement, that makes the viewers sit on the edge of their seats while viewing. Picking the correct sounds and songs can be very difficult though. One wrong sound within a scene, and the whole scene is ruined, so it is a very precautious task when handling. Sound techniques also add more than just thrills, they also add depth and detail just like the camera techniques, but in a different way. Another thing is that they add emotion to a film. Sounds can enhance many emotions, such as happiness, sadness, pain, anger and basically everything else. There are many scenarios in the film that have excellent sound choices, and others that sound like they have just been slapped together. Some good examples of sound techniques bing used correctly and adding to the scene not taking away, was Burts speed run at Bonneville. The slow build up of suspenseful and proud music really adds to the scenes importance and sets an atmosphere for the viewers to let them know that this moment is of very great importance to Burt. Also some examples of bad sound technique usage was also during the same scene. This was Burts motorcycle and how it was constantly repeating the noise of it accelerating, although the bike would have been at max rpm for most of the run. In my opinion, even though this is a small mistake, it also has benefits as the noise of it accelerating gives the viewers thrills and a sense of high speeds beyond their imagination. So in my opinion, the sound techniques throughout the film were very 50/50 with whether they fit in perfectly or not.

In conclusion, I believe Roger Donaldson, the director of the film “The Worlds Fastest Indian” did a remarkable job at applying all the film techniques that I went through above and also making sure that they are used correctly. A lot of things are required to make a film great and not just good acting. Even the tiniest things such as lighting can make or break a film. The directors intention throughout the whole film was to teach the viewers to never give up on their dreams no matter how big they are, and also to keep persisting through any hardships tat come your way. After watching the film multiple times, I believe that Roger Donaldson accomplished this goal of implementing is intention throughout almost every scene of the film. So in conclusion, I applaud Roger Donaldson for correctly using all the needed techniques and creating a world wide known master piece.