Firstly, Marie and I were excited to see this. Not knowing the details about it, we thought we were going to see a dual-sport adventure with beautiful cinematography. An inspiring look into man's struggle with environment and machine, facing adversity and overcoming the fear of inadequacy. We were severely disappointed.
***Possible spoiler alert***
The premise was of 6 men, being inspired by Long Way Round, taking a trip on motorcycles through roads and backroads of Colorado. There was the father, also the narrator, two young men (I think his), a friend of the young men (who admittedly had 10-15 hrs of experience), a psychologist (a friend of the father's), and a guide to help them with planning and execution of the trip.
They started by buying used BMW GS 800's off of the internet, and then prepping them with maintenance and farkles (painfully supplied by SW Motech, Twisted Throttle, Barkbusters, etc.., with stickers everywhere on the bikes). An off-road riding class was next, which was smart on their part, as only the guide had any knowledge of riding off-road. After mapping their ride and loading the bikes, they were off from somewhere in Colorado.
Their first day had them riding paved roads, to another of the father's friends, who was building his own airplane. An inspirational talk from the pilot about a crash landing sometime earlier, started the discussion about one's life, or "story", as they like to put it.
Some more stops at a cliff lined river, where a climbing friend of the father had died while climbing with him, and a duned area where the young men reminisced of their love of Star Wars. All the while, more discussions of their "story", or more to the point, their experiences in their lives concerning everything from a relationship with a father, to being abused mentally, physically, and sexually.
It was at the dune scene, that Marie and I got up and walked out of the theater, after having enough of this soul-searching, telling of one's feelings, and introspective awareness of why we are what we are. $30 wasted.
What went wrong? Why did this totally miss the mark on a motorcycle adventure?
Well, in my opinion, it is because they made the adventure secondary to their primary agenda, which was to look into one's self, face the demons of one's past, and come to an understanding of why they are, who they are.
In the hour of viewing, very little was shown of them on their bikes, just small snippets here and there. Mainly, it was them talking about themselves and their views of life's meaning. It had a narcissistic feel to it, with a captive audience at their disposal. More time should have been given to the actual riding adventure, to the trials and tribulations of maneuvering 600lb motorcycles off-road. To the building of confidence, and the natural comraderie that would be attained because of these shared experiences. Their attempt to replicate a LWR adventure failed miserably. They forgot why they chose motorcycles for this film, and instead, chose to make a chic film about psychoanalysis among friends, with some motorcycle footage thrown in.
Off course, this is just my opinion, and others may find this film inspirational. My advice though, would be wait until you can view it for free. That way you're out nothing but time, time that you will never get back.
Rob
