This is a biopic of Evel Knievel with George Harrison playing the larger than life stunt rider/dare devil Bobby Knievel.
The film is told through remembered highlights of his life while he is preparing for a big jump in front of thousands. He grew up in Butte, Montana which he described as being dangerous because there were mines ready to collapse every where. His inspiration may have come from his first daredevil show that his grandmother took him to in which one gentleman blew himself up with dynamite and another guy got smashend to death on a retaining wall. "I found it to be a very moving experience."-Bobby Knievel
It then goes on to show Bobby stealing in a very public way from the safe of a local store...then dynomiting through the wall of City Hall to steal tax money. Both of these were done in a way that showed just how charismatic he really was. Everyone seems to know him in his home town, including the police.
He meets his future wife, Linda, when she is still in high school and he is a bit of a show off hoodlum dropout. While showing off to Linda, he gets himself arrested and thrown in jail for reckless driving. While in jail it is discovered during role call that he is in the clink with a man nick-named "awful" knoffl and thus was born his moniker "Evel" Knievel.
Evel started motorcycle jumping at a rodeo as Bobby and his jumps just got more elaborate as Evel. They were performed in front of bigger and bigger audiences. They showed that he had a contentious relationship with his doctor who continued to reset all of the bones he broke in his daredevil stunt mishaps.
He was famous for saying repeatedly, "Fear is not a word in my vocabulary."
The movie all leads up to a big jump in front of a huge crowd and end with him driving his motorcycle up to the Grand Canyon, a jump he always wanted to make.
When I was a child in the 70's I actually had one of the Evel Knievel stunt bikes and I ran into Evel at a gas station in Post Falls, Idaho where we were both gassing up...of course he was in his sixties at the time and it would be close to the end of his life.
"The only choice left to us is death...and mine will be glorious!"-Evel Knievel.
This was actually a fun biopic. I appreciated George Hamilton's confident take on such a charismatic character.
