Working for the next few days, so won't have any time to write any reviews or even read reviews. Ple...
Working for the next few days, so won't have any time to write any reviews or even read reviews. Please tell me if I've missed any of your reviews, I'll get to them when I have some free time. Merry Christmas everyone. Kirst
Member since:14.08.2007
Reviews:268
Members who trust:196
I've always been a big fan of Ewan McGregor, and two Christmases I sat down and realised there was nothing on. I started to flick through the channels and found 'Long Way Round'. I wasn't a bit fan of documentaries back then, especially ones about motorbikes and going around the world, they used to bore me silly, but it was Ewan McGregor so I thought I'd give it a chance.
It is probably the most fantastic piece of documentary that I've ever seen.
The Plot
When old friends Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman set out to follow two of their passions they never imagined what an experience it would be. Both had a love of motorbikes and they both wanted to see the world, a way that not a lot of other people have really seen it before.
They teamed up with David Alexainian & Russ Malkin, two well known creative directors and the four of them came up with the idea for Long Way Round.
They decided that they were going to spend 115 days to travel 20,000 miles from London to New York, the long way round.
They wanted another cameraman to ride with the boys, and they found Claudio, who rode his own BMW alongside the boys.
In April 2004, the boys set off from London and travelled on their bikes into mainland Europe, going east and finally ending up 115 days later in New York on the exact time & date they said they would be there when they were planning it.
They couldn't do it alone however, Russ & David
both had support vehicles and they essentially were travelling around the world with Ewan & Charley. In the big 4x4's were both of them, a couple more cameramen and a doctor. They would meet up at every border into every different country to talk about the trip and struggle to get through borders that not many people have travelled through before.
After the trip was completed, Charley went on to complete The Road to Dakar which is one of the toughest races in the world. When he came home, they started to prepare for The Long Way Down.
The Places
In 115 days they managed to travel 20,000 miles from London to New York, they travelled through 12 countries. Here they are:
UK- Starting point (London) France Belgium Germary The Czech Republic Slovakia Ukraine Russia Kazakhstan Mongolia USA Canada USA- Ending Point (New York, 115 days later)
Some of the journey could not be done by motorbike however, they had to go on the train in Siberia just because there was no road to where they wanted to go, some of the Road Of Bones which goes from Russia & Magadan they had to have help from some passing lorries because the bikes just couldn't get through the water and on the final leg, they needed to fly from Magadan to Alaska.
In Europe they mainly stayed in hotels, but as they got deeper into the journey, they had no choice but to camp because there was no one and no houses for miles let alone a nice hotel.
The People
Ewan McGregor- A well known Scottish actor who decided to follow his love for motorbikes and take the trip of a life-time.
Charley Boorman- A good friend of Ewan and shared his passion for seeing the world and motorbikes.
Claudio Von Planta- the Cameraman who experience the whole trip with the boys, he didn't get off to a good start because he told them at the last minute he didn't have a UK driving licence for his bike. He failed his first test, and had to retake it and meet them in Prague.
Russ Malkin- A well known creative director, who travelled in one of the support vehicles.
David Alexainian- An American creative director, who was a friend of Russ's and was brought on the team by him. He drove one of the support vehicles.
In Russia & Asia they were joined by Sergey who was a security advisor and Vasily who was a doctor.
They were also joined by the young Jim Simak, who was a cameraman. He spent most of his time on the support vehicle filming from there.
The Bikes/ Support Crew Vehicles
Ewan wanted to drive BMW bikes but Charley really wanted the KTM, he thought that they would be better suited for this journey. However, stupidly KTM declined the offer of them using their bikes for the journey as they thought it would be an embarrassment and not very good publicity for them and so the boys went with the BMW.
They each had a BMW R 1150 GS Adventure.
I don't know if that's good or not, my knowledge of cars let alone motorbikes is limited.
The Support crew travelled in two Mitsubishi off road vehicles, a red L200 Animal LWB 4x4 pick up and a black Shogun warrior DI- D automatic estate.
The Charity
Ewan & Charley wanted to do this ultimately for a charity, they decided to choose UNICEF. They visited some of their work in Mongolia, Ukraine & Kazakhstan.
Accidents
The whole team had quite a few accidents but I think Ewan McGregor took the brunt of them all. He had petrol sprayed in his eyes twice on two different occasions. He got bitten by a mosquito which required treatment and had been bitten in quite a few lower areas as well. He got hit by a young driver in Calgary.
Russ & Vasily managed to turn over their 4x4, luckily the car took most of the damage and they came out with only minor injuries.
Charley hurt his shoulder which stopped him from riding for a few days.
Cameras
Claudio filmed most of the scenery but quite a bit of it however was filmed by Ewan & Charley. They each had a camera on their bike and in their helmet and one to do a film diary every night.
Authorities
They had to travel through 12 countries, so there had to be problems but Ewan & Charley forgot to get their carnet stamped into the Czech Republic and spent 12 hours trying to get out of Czech and into Slovakia.
In Kazakhstan they had trouble with the cops again, but not in a bad way. They insisted on escorting the boys through the country and it turned the ride into a media circus and the boys just wanted to get on.
Music
Ewan sorted out the title song from The Long Way Round via text. He loved Stereophonics and got the lead singer to sing a song for the theme tune.
The DVD
Episode 1- Preparation Episode 2- London to Volgograd Episode 3- Kazakhstan Episode 4- Barnaul to Western Mongolia Episode 5- Western Mongolia to Yakutsk Episode 6- Yakutsk to Magadan (Road Of Bones) Episode 7- Anchorage to New York
The disk includes deleted scenes and some lovely pictures of the trip.
Other
The whole documentary is well worth watching, Ewan McGregor really shines and it's nice to see his personality come out. The people they met on the trip were lovely, and it's nice to see how nice people can be and how welcoming they can be. I loved the fact that they would trade vodka from their country with Scottish alcohol, I thought that was really sweet.
The trip took 115 days and it's shown within 7 hours of wonderful cinematography. It's really amazing the countries they see and the people they meet.
Long Way Down
Ewan & Charley and the rest of the team wanted to do the journey again so they decided to travel from John O'Groats in Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa.
Ewan broke his leg about 2 months prior to the trip and that nearly ended the trip.
It's being shown on BBC 2, Sunday nights at 9 and the DVD comes out in the beginning of December.
Thanx for reading.
Kirsty
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
2 men, 4 wheels and 20,000 miles. Long Way Round is truly the adventure of a ... more
lifetime.Bonded by a unique friendship and love of motorbikes, Long Way Round documents the adventures of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on their extraordinary journey arou...
Advantages: exciting, you can really get into the adventure Disadvantages: It made me regret not travelling, everytime I watch it I want to explore the world.
![Ewan McGregor: Long Way Round (Two Disc Set) [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78487201.jpg "Ewan McGregor: Long Way Round (Two Disc Set) [DVD]")
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