Review

REVIEW

On Any Sunday II

Sorry to begin with a negative but the main thing about “On Any Sunday II” is that the movie, entertaining though it is and although the film contains at least a glimpse of several of the staff, is not a sequel to “On Any Sunday.”

The original OAS wasn't a racing movie. It wasn’t even a motorcycle movie. Instead, it was a movie about having fun. The vehicle, excuse the pun. was motorcycles and the theme of the movie was simply that some super keen folks went out riding dirt bikes, in races or just riding around with pals, and had a good time. Millions of people saw OAS, hundreds of thousands went out and got dirt bikes and began having fun.

OAS II isn't like that. It’s done with more polish. The backers had more money, the cameramen, editors, writers and so forth had more time. They literally went around the world getting miles of film, then edited down to the best, and it's good film.

OAS II is a racing movie. The heroes

aren't exactly household words, not in nonbike households, but they’re well known; Kenny Roberts, Brad Lackey, Bob Hannah. Bernie Schreiber. Bruce Penhall. Don Vesco. No plot, in the usual sense. Instead we follow Roberts on the GP circuit, with clips from his earlier days, we watch Penhall in Europe, Bernie doing amazing things in his own back yard. Vesco on the salt flats.

To lighten the drama there are short takes from other racing, for example pavement speedway with betting in Japan, the drags, hillclimbs. amateur motocross, amateur road racing, even shots of bicycle motocross with narration done in BMX jargon; what an adult thinks a 12-year-old says to himself when the kid is trying to talk like he thinks Mike Bell talks.

Here's w'here the reviewer breaks away from the film. The heroes are made godlike, the rest of the riders are made fun of. Personal ties, yes. I saw some friends in the amateur footage. I was at that race. They were leading the class, they had bad luck

and didn't win. The movie skips this, even uses trick lenses to make the race a joke.

But when Brad Lackey comes in fourth for the world 500 title, it’s treated as a tragedy. Not fair. The hillclimbers falling downhill, the amateurs wrenching their own machines and losing, care just as much as Lackey does. They take losing just as hard, and they don’t go home with a fat factory contract to ease the pain.

The warmth is gone. OAS II isn't a movie about fun. It’s a movie about motorcycle racing. Good work in its own way. The Roberts sequences are super and Vesco’s record run, with onboard camera and tape so you see him going faster than the eye can follow . . . and then he shifts into high gear. Oh wow. Worth the price of admission just for that.

In all. no harm done. The backers don't have a schedule yet but chances are On Any Sunday II w ill be coming to your tow n and if you like to watch racing movies, you’ll like this one.

But it ain't like On Any Sunday. —A.G.