Review: Motocross, Malcolm & More

Publish Date: 
Feb 1, 2002

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - HOW MANY motorcycle movies have been nominated for an Academy Award? While Ann-Margret and Joe Namath may have done some fine work in CC Rider, and Biker Chicks From Zombie Town is a "must see" around Halloween, critically acclaimed biker movies can be narrowed down to Easy Rider and On Any Sunday.

Cycle World magazine says the original On Any Sunday "is, without question, the finest motorcycle movie ever made." The late Steve McQueen said, "I think Bruce Brown's film is the best thing to ever happen to motorcycling. The audience is taken on a visual ride in what I believe is finally the definitive film on motorcycling." Some 30 years later, this statement still holds true, as the movie inspired an entire generation to go riding.

To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of On Any Sunday, Monterey Media asked Bruce Brown and his son, Dana, to go through their archives to put together On Any Sunday Revisited last year. "We literally had miles of extra footage," Bruce recounts. "We had way too many cameras rolling."

 

 

They had so much extra footage that Dana Brown barely had enough space to intertwine new interviews with the Grand National Dirt Track stars of the past. The great scenes of Malcolm Smith, McQueen and a host of desert racers had to be saved for another Sunday. The good news for fans is that Sunday is now, as On Any Sunday: Motocross, Malcolm & More has just been released.

Perhaps the coolest things about the "new" movie - beyond getting another look at all the desert racing and motocross stars of the past - are a photo scrapbook from the riders and the stories that Bruce and star Malcolm Smith tell about the making of the movie. The DVD version gets an extra 30 minutes of voice-over war stories that give you a real behind-the-scenes look at the best motorcycle movie ever made.

Interestingly, there is no footage of Malcolm falling down. "He may have done silly things like forgetting to turn the gas on before attempting to climb Widow Maker, but he never once dropped the bike when we were filming," says Brown in the new DVD-version interview. "Malcolm is pure magic on a motorcycle."

Coincidentally, it is the 30th anniversary of Malcolm Smith Racing, so the folks from Monterey asked Malcolm and Bruce to autograph MSR 30th Anniversary leather jackets to be given away at each of the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show consumer events this year. The jackets were then presented to the winners at local dealerships by Tucker Rocky road reps after each show. Boxed DVD sets of the new movie, along with the original On Any Sunday and On Any Sunday Revisited, were also awarded to lucky winners, and dealers near the show stops were issued commemorative posters.

"We wanted to do something really special," says Monterey Media president Scott Mansfield. "We also wanted a way to drive customers to their local dealerships." Sounds like an award-winning idea to us. - Robin Hartfiel
 

 

 

 

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