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Madman. Daredevil. Cultural icon. Con artist. Whatever your view is of Robert Craig Knievel, Jeff Tremaine and Johnny Knoxville’s Dickhouse production of Being Evel presents – for the very first time – a more human side to the 1970s stunt icon who is currently credited for legitimizing Extreme Sports and bringing it into the limelight. Being Evel, the recently released near two-hour documentary, delivers on the promise Knoxville made to the press when he originally embarked on his journey through Knievel’s life story to deliver something captivating and uniquely different.
While showman Knievel is known more for his death-defying antics in front of television cameras, director Daniel Junge (They Killed Sister Dorothy) delves into his rough-and-ready upbringing in Butte, Montana and challenges viewers to understand the events that created the “Evel” persona America was introduced in 1967 when he unsuccessfully attempted to jump the fountains at Caesars Palace as originally aired on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. It really didn’t matter if he made the landing or not, America – knee-deep in some pretty heavy political concerns – needed an everyman to celebrate and Knievel more than delivered with a super-sized personality that quickly became a top-selling children’s toy.
He faced, as a boy, the wild streets of this prostitute-filled mining town without a father in his life. He learned to cruise and bruise on his own and the fire in his belly was rarely satisfied. He got around the small town on bike and then on motorcycle and, as he was often breaking into shops and being a general nuisance, learned at an early age just how powerful speed via motorcycle could be for a young man. The real struggle came to a head though when Knievel, who was more than a little frustrated by finances, knew he had to support his wife and kids doing what HE wanted.
After breaking records and rules as an insurance salesman, he took matters into his own hands and moved to California to break bone after bone doing wacky stunts on a Harley Davidson that had no business being airborne. Call him crazy but, Evel did it and he did it, drawing inspiration from Elvis Presley and Liberace, with an incredible amount of flair and style. The rest is televised history or so we thought. What Being Evel incorporates iinto the known is Knievel’s love-hate relationship with clothes, women, biker gangs, the media and the public as it fully fleshes out the man who inspired Jackass and the X Games.
With talking head interviews from Knoxville, Tony Hawk, George Hamiltion, the local cops in Butte (who could never catch him) and the folks he palled around with (including his family), Being Evel doesn’t shy away from the more difficult personal topics that ended with him disappearing from the public’s eye for quite awhile. It is an honest portrayal of a complicated folk hero that completely articulates the dramatic change that happened within Knievel when he bought into his own myth and sided more with the con than with the artist.
With his spirit always on the line, Being Evel proves that Evel Knievel was a true superhero.
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[tab title="Film Details"]
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Runtime: 99 mins
Director: Daniel Junge
Writer: Davis Coombe, Daniel Junge
Cast: George Hamilton
Genre: Documentary | Biography | History
Tagline: The Good. The Bad. The Evel.
Memorable Movie Quote: "I didn't think of Evel Kneivel as a daredevil, I thought of him as a superhero."
Distributor: THINKFilm
Official Site: http://www.festivalexpress.com/
Release Date: April 26, 2004
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: February 11, 2014
Synopsis: In the history of sports, few names are more recognizable than that of Evel Knievel. Long after the man hung up his famous white leather jumpsuit and rode his Harley into the sunset, his name is still synonymous with the death-defying lifestyle he led. Notoriously brash, bold, and daring, Knievel stared death in the face from the seat of his motorcycle, but few know the larger-than-life story of the boy from Butte, Montana.
After an adolescence riddled with petty thievery and general rabble-rousing, Knievel set his sights on superstardom, a feat he achieved when televisions around the world aired the startling crash footage of his 1967 attempt to jump the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The jump was spectacular, but the failed landing that sent him skidding like a ragdoll across the asphalt was the main attraction. Throughout the 1970s, his legacy as King of the Daredevils spawned action figures, movies, and a generation of kids who wanted to be just like Evel.
Featuring insights from current action sports superstars who were inspired by Evel's iconic career, Academy Award-winning director Daniel Junge immerses you in a life story so incredible that you'd swear it was a tall tale.
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