Today, the feats and leaps of action sports at their most extreme are common occurrences. Professional athletes compete for glory, training programs help the next brood of performers perfect the requisite skills, and ever-present cameras showcase their high-flying exploits around the world. For the less focused and more fun-loving, a breed of comic stuntwork has arisen around such antics going wrong, as seen on television shows such as Jackass. They all have one thing in common: Evel Knievel. When the daredevil came to global attention jumping motorcycles over vast expanses, he inspired generations of others to follow in his footsteps.
The story of Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel is one of rising and falling, as his bounds over buses, trucks, fountains and canyons demonstrated. When he wasn’t astride his two-wheeled engine wearing his trademark red, white and blue jumpsuit, he rose and fell too. First, he was beloved in the late 1960s and early 1970s for his audacity at a time when the U.S. was plagued by cynicism about the Vietnam War and political corruption. Then, his sheen with friends, family, onlookers and audiences alike faded, his trickery eclipsed by his volatile personality.
Being Evel recounts both the ups and downs – and, in a documentary that begins with actor and Jackass star Johnny Knoxville (also one of the film’s producers) proclaiming Knievel as a superhero, affection is balanced with criticism. That’s a considerable achievement on writer/director Daniel Junge and editor/co-scribe Davis Coombe’s parts, the Beyond the Brick: A LEGO Brickumentary collaborators populating their film with those who knew him best as they do. Of course, the tale of a man who started as a small-town boy rarely shy on confidence and never willing to be seen as a coward lends itself to many a dark chapter, money woes, drinking problems, domestic disharmony, frequent injuries and career chaos among them.
With those less applause-worthy moments coming later in his celebrity, the chronologically constructed account of Knievel’s life is a film of two distinct halves. Initially, the many interviewees – including his first wife, children, childhood pals, colleagues, sports media figures and adoring celebrity fans – are effusive about his boldness, before revealing the change such a swift ascent to fame caused. Adhering to the timeline ensures the wavering between adoration and analysis works, because as well as delving through his history, understanding why Knievel became the character he was remains the documentary’s aim. Being Knievel has that name for a reason; while his high- and lowlights may be well known, the tales behind the world records and broken bones, and beyond the attention-seeking bravado broadcast to the world, are less so.
To paint his layered portrait, Junge may lean too heavily on talking heads over vision of death-defying manoeuvres, the latter showing its age with golden hues that look more like memories than filmed footage, but he compiles a polished package – and an entertaining one too. Achieving the same showmanship as the film’s subject isn’t realistic, nor intended. Instead, the modest effort honours Knievel by exploring his other legacy: his complexity.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Being Evel
Director: Daniel Junge
USA, 2015, 99 mins
Revelation Perth International Film Festival
http://www.revelationfilmfest.org/index.php
July 2 – 12, 2015
Melbourne International Film Festival
July 30 – August 16
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